While discussing the origins of saying bless you after someone sneezes during lunch today several reasons were brought up that I heard before. One claim was of a historical origin in the days when The Black Death was killing off a third of Europe. A sneeze was a telltale sign of having the plague and one needed immediate spiritual strengthening. There was also the  more adolescent concept that your grace or soul slips out a bit and saying bless you somehow jams it back into place. Another reason that came up was that your heart stops when you sneeze and saying bless you helps makes sure it starts back up again. I am now in the practice of brain picking the internet community whenever one of these potential myths/legends pops up so here I am looking for anyone with some fancy letters after their name to clear this up once and for all. A reference to any sites concerning this topic would be appreciated.

While discussing the origins of saying bless you after someone sneezes during lunch today several reasons were brought up that I heard before. One claim was of a historical origin in the days when The Black Death was killing off a third of Europe. A sneeze was a telltale sign of having the plague and one needed immediate spiritual strengthening. There was also the  more adolescent concept that your grace or soul slips out a bit and saying bless you somehow jams it back into place. Another reason that came up was that your heart stops when you sneeze and saying bless you helps makes sure it starts back up again. I am now in the practice of brain picking the internet community whenever one of these potential myths/legends pops up so here I am looking for anyone with some fancy letters after their name to clear this up once and for all. A reference to any sites concerning this topic would be appreciated. my wife had a definite ekg response to a sneeze, cough, and a sudden desire to talk. she subsequently developed arrthymia. regards.

my wife had a definite ekg response to a sneeze, cough, and a sudden desire to talk. she subsequently developed arrthymia. I have watched EKG monitors in CCU's for literally 20 years.  Some people do have sneeze, cough, vomitting EKG dysrhythmias.  these usually are slowing of the heartbeat, heart block, or PVC's/PAC's.  they usually subside spontaneously when the causative factor stops.  They seemingly are more pronounced after an acute heart attack.  Vomitting has probably caused the highest percentage of heart dysrhythmias, IMHO, probably owing to an exceedingly great amount of vagal tone present during that activity.

: : my wife had a definite ekg response to a sneeze, cough, and a sudden : desire to talk. she subsequently developed arrthymia. I've had SVT for a decade and consequently have developed an acute awareness of my heart. When I sneeze, my heart skips a beat. That is, it pauses between beats for an abnormally long period of time, then reverts to a regular rhythm, though slightly elevated for a bit. I don't know if this is magnified by the SVT, but I somehow doubt it. Gesundheit, Paul