Blinding Light Can Really Make Sneezing?

Staring at the sun directly is usually just makes your eyes sting because of too much glare. But for 18-35 percent of people who have photic sneeze reflex, against the sun can also make your nose itch and sneezing.

One of the patients with this disorder is Dr. Roberta Pagon, strike pediatrician from Seattle Children's Hospital. Every time his eyes staring at the sun, his reaction was immediate sneezing and not once but three times in a row.

Histories of sneezing as she gazed at the sun are also experienced by the two sons of Dr. Pagon, who happened to be always sneezing 3 times. Now, his grandson also started to show a similar trend although the number of sneezes which is only a little more time.

At a scientific conference, Dr. Pagon again found that 4 of 10 colleagues also have a tendency sneeze when looking at the sun. Sneezing sometimes also occur when other light sources involves blinding, like a camera flash.

After discussion, Dr. Pagon and some colleagues made an acronym or abbreviation for acquired problems that ACHOO Syndrome. Autosomal Dominant Compelling is Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst (ACHOO), among others, passed on through genes.

Although it sounds unique, a tendency to sneeze when looking at the sun or who have a photic sneeze reflex the official term is actually not really rare. An estimated 18-35 percent of the human experience with the severity of which varies.

Dr. Pagon added, there are at least two theories that could explain this trend. First, the sneeze reflex is formed in the brain stem or spinal cord that works very sensitive to light, especially the dazzling effect.

The second possibility is the position of the optic nerve is too close to the trigeminal nerves that also come into play when sneezing. Nicolas Langer, PhD, neurosurgeon at the University of Zurich said, if the optic nerve trigeminal nerve is activated it will immediately trigger a sneeze.

In general, these disorders do not cause serious harm. However, as quoted by MSNBC, the disorder can be very dangerous for certain professions such as airline pilots, baseball and other extreme activities that require concentration.