A healthy 34-year-old man from Leicester has ruptured his throat while trying to stop a high-force sneeze.

Featured Image VIA

With nowhere to go, the pressure of his sneeze ripped through the soft tissue of his throat, which – while rare – can happen. Doctors are now reminding people that as well as a ruptured throat, you can damage your ears and even give yourself a brain aneurysm by holding in a sneeze.

The man said he felt a “popping” sensation in his neck when it happened and immediately felt pain swallowing and speaking.

He was fed through a tube for a week, but thankfully in the end he was OK.

Image VIA

The really tragic thing though is that this guy felt the need to suppress his sneeze in the first place. Where along our evolution did we decide it was embarrassing to sneeze in public? Well we did and now because of that people are getting their throats ripped open just because they don’t want others to laugh at their sneeze/get spit and snot everywhere in public. In fact people who do the latter should probably just keep on stifling their sneezes.

For a horrific image showing why you should never sneeze while curling your eyelashes, click HERE.