小譯說
打噴嚏是再常見不過的事了，可是，你知道噴嚏憋著不打對身體有什麼危害嗎？下來和小譯一起，共同探索打噴嚏的秘密吧！
Sneezing is one of the many wonders of the human body, another one of our protective reflexes. When something irritates the inside of our nose — such as dust or pollen — the tiny nerve endings inside our nose send a message to our brain that in turns sends out messages to numerous parts of our body to facilitate the sneeze.
打噴嚏是一種很奇妙的行為，也是人體一種保護性反射。灰塵或花粉等東西刺激鼻腔時，鼻腔內的神經末梢就會向大腦發送信號，然後大腦再將信號傳遞到身體的許多部位，最後人就會打噴嚏。
There are a lot of split-second events involved. Your chest muscles compress your lungs, which send a burst of air upwards. The throat shuts tight, which then sends the air shooting through your nose at speeds up to 100 mph.
打噴嚏的瞬間會發生很多事情。肺部會在胸部肌肉的擠壓下向上輸送空氣。由於喉嚨緊閉，氣流會以每小時100英裡的速度從鼻子噴出。
And let’s not forget the spray; there are 2,000 to 5,000 bacteria-filled droplets emanating from your nose and mouth when you sneeze. (Needless to say, a tissue or some other form of protection for your nearest and dearest is in order.) Someone with a cold also sneezes quite a bit for the same reason — the swelling in their nasal passages can cause irritation.
當然，還會有飛濺的液體，這些飛沫由鼻腔和口腔產生，含有多達2000到5000個細菌。（不必多說，打噴嚏時最好拿個遮擋物，比如紙巾，以避免使周圍人群受到感染。）人感冒時會打噴嚏，也差不多是這個原因——鼻黏膜充血水腫對鼻道造成刺激。
It's a fascinating process — so fascinating that it's been the topic of much research, the latest from Lydia Bourouiba, a mathematical physicist from MIT whose exploration was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2016.
打噴嚏的過程很有意思，以至於已經成了許多科學研究的主題。莉迪亞·保奧（Lydia Bourouiba）是麻省理工學院的一名數理物理學家，2016年，她在《新英格蘭醫學刊》上發表了關於打噴嚏的最新研究成果。
Her work is expansive, but her overall goal is simple: to understand how sneeze droplets (and disease microbes) travel. She breaks down the sneeze in ways you might not want to understand, but you have to admit.
莉迪亞的工作涉及範圍很廣，但總體目標只有一個：弄明白打噴嚏時所產飛沫（包括病菌）的傳播過程。她對打噴嚏的過程進行了分解；你可能並不太想了解分解的方法，但也必須承認這一研究的意義。
01 Don't hold it in
噴嚏不要憋著不打
Sometimes you feel the urge to sneeze when you're in a meeting or it's the quiet part of a play or concert. You might do your best to stifle the reflex so you don't let loose with a loud explosion.
有時正在開會或者觀看表演時，場內一片寂靜，突然你會很想打噴嚏。你可能會盡力壓制這一反射，避免一聲巨響打出聲來。
But it's better to interrupt your coworkers and seatmates than risk some health consequences, say researchers.
但是，有研究人員稱，最好不要怕驚嚇到你的同事或者鄰座，因為噴嚏憋著不打可能會引發健康問題。
A 34-year-old in Leicester in the U.K. ended up rupturing his throat while trying to hold in a forceful sneeze. The man said he felt a "popping" sensation in his neck after pinching his nose and holding his mouth closed to stop a sneeze. The pressure didn't have anywhere to go, so it tore the soft tissue.
英國萊斯特郡一名34歲的男子就因極力抑制噴嚏而導致喉嚨破裂。這名男子稱，他當時捏住鼻子，閉緊嘴巴，想要憋住噴嚏，卻感到脖子處「嘭」的一聲。這股壓力無處可去，最終撕裂了軟組織。
The man had to be fed by a tube and eventually made a full recovery. Researchers, who described the case in the journal BMJ Case Reports, said trapping a sneeze can be dangerous and can also result in something as serious as a brain aneurysm.
該男子只能通過導管進食，最終才徹底痊癒。研究人員將這一案例發表在《BMJ病例報告》上，他們說，噴嚏憋著不打會有危險，還有可能引發腦動脈瘤等嚴重疾病。
02 Not all sneezes are alike
一千個人，一千種噴嚏
I know all sorts of sneezers. Quiet ones and loud ones. Ones who hold in the sneeze as if there’s a little explosion going on in their head, and the ones who let it rip so loud that the people around them jump. But what’s funny to me is how some people seem to sneeze just once and some people tend to be series sneezers. (Cue "Seinfeld" episode about the appropriate time to say "God bless you.")
我見過各種各樣打噴嚏的人，有人打得安靜，有人打得大聲。也有人憋著不打，然後覺得腦袋裡面嗡嗡作響，還有人打得隨心所欲，聲音異常洪亮，把周圍的人都嚇一跳。但對我來說，真正有意思的是，為什麼有人噴嚏只打一次，而有人要連續打上好幾次。（看完《宋飛正傳》，你就會知道在別人打完噴嚏後，什麼時候說「願上帝保佑你」比較合適。）
Each person is bound to be different. As Dr. Mitchell Grayson, a professor in the division of allergy and clinical immunology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, explains to Everyday Health: "Some people have bouts of sneezing.
每個人的噴嚏都有自己的特點。米切爾·格雷森（Mitchell Grayson）是美國密爾沃基市威斯康星學院過敏與臨床免疫學專業的一名教授，她在每日健康網（Everyday Health）上解釋：「有些人會連續打上好幾個噴嚏。
It's a neurologic reflex, and it depends on the person. Some people may have 10 to 20 sneezes in a row." It usually depends on the level of irritation in your nose though, because you』ll keep sneezing until you get it out.
這是一種神經反射，每個人都不一樣。有的人甚至會連續打10到20 個噴嚏。」通常這與鼻腔內的刺激程度有關，什麼時候把刺激物排出來，什麼時候才會停止打噴嚏。
I’m sure you’re familiar with the long-standing myth that your eyes will pop out of your head if you sneeze with them open. (David Goldstein, who sat behind me in elementary school, spent the better part of fifth grade trying to sneeze with his eyes open to do just that. What his plan was if his eyes actually did pop out, I do not know.)
我敢確信，你早就聽說過這個流傳已久的說法了：打噴嚏時如果睜著雙眼，眼球可能就會彈出來。（大衛·戈德斯坦（David Goldstein）讀小學時坐在我後面，幾乎整個五年級，他都在嘗試睜著眼睛打噴嚏。我不知道他是不是想試一下眼球到底會不會彈出來。）
The myth begs debunking. Our eyes are firmly attached to our heads, thanks to a group of delicate muscles. They are not, contrary to this popular grade-school myth, going to fall out of our heads if we forget to close our eyelids when we sneeze.
早就應該終結這個謠言了。眼睛通過許多纖細的肌肉群與頭部相連，與這個眾所周知的傳言相反，打噴嚏時如果忘記閉眼，眼球並不會彈出來。
So why do our eyes shut tight when we sneeze? It's simply a reflex, much like our leg going up when our knee is tapped. It doesn’t really have a good reason — it just happens. There are those who can sneeze with their eyes open, though I don’t know any personally. (If you're one of the lucky few, please tell us about your experience in the comments below.)
那打噴嚏時人們為什麼總會緊閉雙眼呢？答案很簡單，這只不過是一種條件反射，就像輕敲一下膝蓋，腿就會不自覺地抬起來一樣。並不是有意為之，而是自然而然地就發生了。事實上，也有一些人可以睜著眼睛打噴嚏，儘管我還一個都不認識。（如果你是這樣的人，請留言寫下你的體驗。）
And why the 「God bless you」 response? There are lots of explanations for this one, the most popular one attributing the phrase to Pope Gregory VII in the sixth century, who would literally bless those who sneezed so that they wouldn’t fall ill with the plague.
還有一個問題，打完噴嚏為什麼會有人說「願上帝保佑你」呢？對此有不少解釋，其中有一種解釋最受歡迎，它將這句話與公元六世紀的教皇格裡高利七世聯繫起來。當時，教皇格裡高利七世會為打噴嚏的人祈福，保佑他們不會染上瘟疫。
I prefer Seinfeld’s response to sneezing in the episode I mentioned above: 「If you want to make a person feel better after they sneeze, you shouldn’t say 『God bless you.' You should say, 『You’re soooo good-looking.』」 Amen to that, Jerry.
我更喜歡《宋飛正傳》中傑瑞·宋飛對打噴嚏的回應：「如果你想讓別人打完噴嚏後感覺好點，不要說『願上帝保佑你』，應該說『你真是太太太太太好看了』。」傑瑞，我很同意這一看法呢！
讀完文章後，記得下次要打噴嚏時，千萬不要憋著哦！
本文為百度翻譯原創內容
翻譯：陳健光（北語）
編輯：Judith
文章來源：Mnn