你有沒有發現，打噴嚏的時候總會不由自主地先閉上眼睛？是擔心力氣太大眼珠飛出來嗎？還是為了防止噴出的細菌會掉到眼睛里去呢？如果你硬是睜開眼睛打噴嚏，會出現什么后果？

Let's get one thing straight: "It is very unlikely our eyes will extrude or 'pop out' if we sneeze too forcefully," says Brian Smart, MD, chairman of the Asthma and Allergy Center of the DuPage Medical Group in Illinois.

Well, if the reason we close our eyes when we sneeze isn't to keep them from popping out of our heads, then why bother?

"Similar to the reflex that occurs when your knee kicks after it's hit with a medical hammer, or the way your hand pulls away from something hot when you burn it, closing your eyes when you sneeze is a powerful reflex," says Smart, who is also a spokesman for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. "You can try and force yourself to keep your eyes open when you sneeze, but it's hard to do."

Another piece of folklore: We sneeze with our eyes closed to keep the stuff we sneeze out from getting in our eyes.

"It is also unlikely that the substances we sneeze will get into our eyes, since the substances we sneeze travel some distance," says Smart. "Incidentally, the fact that we sneeze a considerable distance leads me to remind people to always cover their mouths when they sneeze. This will help slow the spread ofrespiratory disease, and is simply good manners."

Don't forget to saygesundheit.

respiratory disease: 呼吸道疾病

gesundheit: 祝你健康！（對剛打噴嚏的人的祝愿）

（北京外國語大學通訊員謝麗供稿）