shut your mouth and holding your olfactory organ while you sneeze might not make your optic pop out , but it couldtear open your throatand cause your chest heftiness to literally fizzle and crackle . At least , this is what happen to one unfortunate bozo who plainly did n’t heed what many of us are told as children .

In a   rather cringe - have case story in theBritish Medical Journaltitled “ Snap , crackling , and protrude : when sneezing leads to crackle in the cervix , ” doctors describe on an incident in which a affected role managed to rupture his throat after muffle a sneeze by close his mouth and pinching his nose at the same prison term .

The 34 - year - old man turned up in an emergency room after account that when he forbid the sneeze , he formulate a “ popping sensation ” in his neck , follow by prompt swelling . This , rather unsurprisingly , led to him being barely able-bodied to utter , regain it hard to swallow , and being in some considerable pain .

While prove him , the Doctor of the Church describe   really hearing break and popping noise emanating from his neck opening all the way down to his costa cage . This was surefire evidence that gentle wind bubble had manage to sweet-talk their way into the deep tissue paper and muscles of the chest , a condition fuck technically as hypodermic pulmonary emphysema and pneumomediastinum .

This usually appears when a person experiences significant trauma to the chest , wherein strain from the lungs turn tail into the thorax cavity . This apparently can make the hide feel like Rice Krispies , as the melodic line is trapped under the skin . Think about that next time you tuck into your grain .

Due to the serious nature of the injury , and the very real risk of rich contagion in the dresser cavity , the man was accept to infirmary . For seven days he was treat with antibiotics as the doctors wait for the bulge to go down , all the while having to be run by a tube up the olfactory organ .

Eventually , the man was discharged with a clean bill of health and the doctors ' recommendation that perhaps next prison term he should n’t hold both his nozzle and mouth when he gets a tickling sensation and needs to sneeze .

“ Halting sneezing via stuff [ the ] nostril and mouth is a dangerous manoeuvre , and should be avoided , ” the authorsof the report advise . “ It may lead to numerous complications , such as pneumomediastinum [ melodic line snare in the chest between both lung ] , perforation of the tympanic tissue layer [ perforated eardrum ] , and even snap of a intellectual aneurysm [ ballooning blood watercraft in the mental capacity ] . ”

Yikes .