“I stare at the sun for a few seconds and immediately sneeze”, “it is especially the light-shade change that sometimes makes me sneeze”… In this summer period when the sun is coming back, many people sneeze repeatedly.
The reason lies mainly in the risk of allergy to pollens, at a high level in practically all the departments of France. But this situation does not explain all sneezing.
Approximately 1 in 4 people would be a victim of the so-called heliotropic sneeze. This originates in the brain, but not through the nostrils, since it is produced simply by raising the head and turning it towards the sun, according to work carried out by an English team from the University of Oxford.
Protect your nose… with sunglasses
A sneeze coming out of our eyes? For Alain Ducardonnet, this is due to an excessive proximity of our optic nerve, which sends signals to our eyes, and the trigeminal nerve, which controls sneezing. According to health specialist BFMTV, a short circuit is formed between the two nerves when a person exposes their eyes to sunlight.
“When the optic nerve is stimulated, due to interference, the trigeminal nerve is also stimulated and that is why we sneeze. We cannot avoid it, it is a reflex”, explains the member of the national council of the order of doctors.
If one parent has this syndrome, the child has a one in two chance of inheriting it, according to the US Center for Biotechnology Information. A hereditary reflex for which there is no treatment. The only solution found so far: wear sunglasses.
Thierry Bour, president of the national union of ophthalmologists, believes for BFMTV that for polarized glasses, a protection index of 3 is “sufficient” to protect the eyes from light.
Source: BFM TV
