Nothing to Sneeze At.

Today, it is very quiet in the office.
The work that I am usually able to spread out over the hours from nine to one I finished promptly at 10:15 this morning. Thus leaving me at odds with what to do until lunch?..

I have already completed my daily Facebook stalking, blog reading and email checking, so there's probably only one thing left to do: write a blog post.

But seeing as there hasn't been anything too eventful and/or hilarious happening in my life as of late, I figured I might as well post about two phenomenon that have been a continuous topic of conversation for many years.

The first one being, the sun makes me sneeze.

Formerly, I had always figured that everyone sneezed when they walked out into bright sunlight. But slowly came to the realization, through semi-heated debate with family and friends on the subject, that I was one of the relatively few who suffered from this problem. In fact, 'da twinneh' was practically the only one who seemed to relate.

But after researching the symptoms, I came across this Wikipedia article.
Apparently I have what is known as a 'photic sneeze reflex' which is also sometimes referred to as the backronym Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst Syndrome (ACHOO Syndrome).
(Anyone else find this quite amusing?.. Anyone else have to look up what a 'backronym' is?..)

This "Sneeze Gene" is a hereditary trait which causes sneezing, possibly many times consecutively (due to naso-ocular reflex), when suddenly exposed to bright light. And it affects 18-35% of the human population.

So me and 'da twinneh' are not alone. Comforting.

Gem claims that minty gum is the culprit/cause of sneezes.
She says that she has friends who agree.

Whether or not these friends are real or imaginary is yet to be determined.

But apparently there is some truth to this claim as well.
Refer here to 11 surprising sneezing facts.

Which include 'why plucking your eyebrows may make you sneeze' and 'the longest sneezing spree'. (978 days apparently. I'd have never guessed.)

All I know is that it hurts to drink cold water after/while I'm chewing minty gum. And just in case you haven't reached your fun fact quota for the day, it's because the menthol in the chewing gum triggers the "cool sensors" in your mouth, causing a 'cooling feeling' when those nerves are activated.

Just thought I'd share my new found knowledge.
Because, yep, nothing new happened on Facebook during this entire post.

Is it lunchtime yet?..