As flu season has sprung itself upon us, you might want to take a few precautions to avoid getting the sniffles. Nobody enjoys being sick. But if you do get sick – never hold in your sneezes!

In fact, a 34-year-old  Englishman from  Leicester described as “previously fit and well” tried to hold in a particularly forceful sneeze by pinching the bottom of his nose and covering his mouth.

Soon after he noticed something was wrong. He noticed a change in his voice when he spoke and a popping and cracking sensation when he would move his neck, along with immense throat pain and a swollen neck area. He found this, as you could imagine, quite alarming.

When he was examined by a doctor,  they noticed something wasn’t quite right as well. He was admitted to  Britain’s Leicester Royal Infirmary, where he had further testing done and X-rays conducted

The X-rays revealed little streaks of air inside of the soft tissues in his neck.  conditions known as subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum. By trying to forcefully withhold himself from sneezing by plugging his nose and covering his mouth,  he actually ruptured his throat and the air found its way into the man’s soft tissues.

Through holding in your sneezes there is also a plethora of other  risks such as,  requiring hearing loss.- Although rare this is still a possible side-effect, bursting a  blood vessel in one of your eyes, weaken blood vessels in the brain, vertigo, and diaphragm injury.

Sneezing, most simply put, is the best way for the body to clear its passages to maintain breathing clean air. Which means when you sneeze, your nose is either irritated or you inhaled an irritant.

His follow up two months later revealed that he had a clean bill of health and that there were no long-term effects.  It should be noted that something like this happening is rare but still possible.

Although sneezing in public may get you a few stares, it’s  definitely better than a ruptured throat and an avoidable hospital stay.

After about a week of recovery the man was able to leave the hospital, fully recovered.