God bless YOU!

A room full of doctors. One sneezes. Several say "God bless you". The sneezer says "thank you". All totally without thought, automatically. For those who claim to practice evidence based medicine, there is little evidence that saying "God bless you" provides any healthful benefits that we know of.

History says we have been saying "God bless You" since about AD 77. There are lots of theories where this came from and no real consensus on the origin. Could be from the lavish blessings Pope Gregory 1 in AD 590 ordered to fight the bubonic plague when sneezing was thought be an early sign.

Or it could be to bless a person to prevent the soul from being thrown from the body during a sneeze....a shield against evil. Another theory says that saying "God bless you" restarts the heart, thought to stop during a sneeze. Or maybe, it's just a reaction to feeling like you have to do something when you don't know what to do or say.

So next time I hear "God bless you", I'll know the plague is prevented, the soul is retained and the heart will continue to beat.

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**Level I: Scientific evidence is lacking, of poor quality, or conflicting, such that the risk versus benefit balance cannot be assessed. Clinicians should help patients understand the uncertainty surrounding the clinical service, and stop saying it around other clinicians.