Why do we burp, sneeze, cough and yawn? What happens inside our body?

Sneezing, burping, coughing and yawning are very natural mechanisms that happen in our body.

Even though we do these things voluntarily, we don’t pay much attention to them. 

That is, a casual sneeze or a cough or a burp or a yawn doesn’t interfere in any way with our day today activities unless they happen out of any sickness.

So in today’s video let’s see what happens inside our body during these casual happenings.

First, burping!

Burping is a very simple process of our body releasing air from our stomach.

Throughout the day a substantial amount of air enters our stomach through our mouth.

This could be when we speak with excitement, or talk while we eat, or due to drinking fizzy drinks that have gas in them and so on.

Having this gas inside our stomach will give lots of discomfort. Hence, our body tries to release this air.

And that process is called burping.

When your stomach gets air inside, and on top of it, the regular food and drinks, your stomach expands.

But it can only expand so much as there is a fixed limit. Now when your stomach can’t expand anymore there arises a pressure inside. 

And this pressure might cause some discomfort depending upon how strong it is.

In order to relieve this pressure, our body expels the air and hence we burp!

Next, sneezing!

Just like burping, sneezing is also a natural thing that happens in our body. It is our body’s attempt to clear out any dust or other minute particles causing discomfort.

So when you sneeze those particles get off the passage.

When something causes discomfort, the nerve endings in the nasal passage send a message to the brain.

The brain in turn organizes a few regions and organs of our body to facilitate a sneeze.

It is very important that you sneeze and don’t control it as it might trigger some unwanted reactions.

You might hurt the lining of the nasal passage, or could get your throat lining torn when you try to hold off a sneeze.

When you sneeze, a series of events happen in the body – your eyes get shut tightly, and your chest muscles compress the lungs. 

And your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, the muscles in the throat shut tight to enable the expulsion of air only through the nose.

Thus a pressure builds up and all the other muscles brace for a sneeze. All these happen in a fraction of a second and then, you sneeze…. Bless you!

Coughing

Very similar to sneezing, coughing is also a natural mechanism that enables clearing off anything that causes discomfort in the throat.

We could have inhaled dust particles, pollen or anything similar. 

Or mucus, food particles or anything similar from inside the body could also be causing discomfort in the throat.

The nerves or receptors in the inner lining of the throat and upper respiratory tract sense the presence of these particles.

This information is received in the cough centre of the brain and then the brain coordinates cough.

You inhale an amount of air. Then the air in the lungs is compressed. The opening to the trachea closes.

Then the opening of trachea opens expelling an amount of air outside, thus clearing the throat.

When you have a runny nose, a cough can be triggered by the postnasal drip.

With both sneeze and cough, air is expelled out at the speed of 100 mph. And 2000-5000 droplets that contain bacteria are released from the nose and mouth.

So yes closing your nose and mouth with a tissue is very important while you cough or sneeze.

Yawning

A yawn is usually triggered when you are tired, or sleepy, or bored, or when you see someone yawn.

Or if someone talks about yawn – I bet you are yawning now!

Yawning is a mechanism where the body tries to wake up. When your body gets warm and wants to cool down, you yawn. 

The intake of air cools down the body.

And when your brain is in need of more oxygen, yawning helps get some air!

Yes, yawning is contagious – you will most likely yawn if you see someone yawn, or if someone talks about yawning or if you are reading about yawning.

And I am sure you are yawning right now as we speak!

The fact that yawning is contagious means that we emphathize and bond with other humans.

When you yawn, the jaw muscles stretch resulting in increase in blood flow for face, neck and the head.

Since we forcefully inhale air, blood and spinal fluid moves down from the brain.

The cool air that’s inhaled cools down the blood and the fluid.

At the same time new cool blood is also introduced to the extremities from the lungs and heart.

As a result of yawning you end up cooling your brain and your whole body. Plus the relaxation of muscles helps you to relax and refresh.

Well, I hope what I shared now was useful information to you.