Here's why you never close your mouth and pinch your nose when you sneeze

I remember growing up and being told various rumours about sneezing. One was that sneezing is the equivalent of one-tenth of an orgasm, the other was that if you sneeze with your eyes open or while holding your nose and shutting your mouth, your eyes will fall out of your head. While both of these are just hearsay, the idea of your eyes falling out is somehow interesting when you're a child, making the build-up to a sneeze pretty exciting. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/OMGFacts/status/952013081709891584]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/SemplePrimate/status/953185106868494336]] However, while your eyeballs may not fly out of your head, it turns out the sneezing while holding your nose and closing your mouth really isn't good for you. In fact, it can end up tearing your throat open and causing your chest muscles to crack. Don't believe me? Well, this is exactly what happened to one unlucky man. The case was featured in the British Medical Journal under the title of  'Snap, crackle, and pop: when sneezing leads to crackling in the neck'. The case reports on an incident in which the patient in question managed to rupture his throat after he attempted to stifle a sneeze by closing his mouth and pinching his nose (seriously, did this guy not hear about the rumours?) The 34-year-old arrived at an emergency room after he reported that he felt a popping sensation, followed by immediate swelling, in his neck after preventing the sneeze. This swelling had left him barely able to speak, finding it difficult to swallow and, understandably, in considerable pain. The doctors who were examining the man reported hearing cracking and popping noises from his neck down to his rib cage. They reported that this was evidence that air bubble had managed to find their way into the deep tissue and muscles of his chest, a condition which is technically known as subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum. This condition tends to occur when an individual experiences a significant trauma to the chest, leading to air from the lungs escaping into the chest cavity. Apparently, this can make end up with skin feeling like Rice Krispies, as the air is trapped underneath the skin. The man was admitted to the hospital by doctors who were concerned by the severity of his injuries. He was treated with antibiotics for seven days while the medics waited for the swelling to go down, all the while being fed by a tube up his nose. After being discharged with a clean bill of health, the doctors recommended that next time he is lining up a sneeze, he shouldn't hold both his nose and mouth. “Halting sneezing via blocking [the] nostrils and mouth is a dangerous manoeuvre, and should be avoided,” the authors of the report advised. “It may lead to numerous complications, such as pneumomediastinum [air trapped in the chest between both lungs], perforation of the tympanic membrane [perforated eardrum], and even rupture of a cerebral aneurysm [ballooning blood vessel in the brain].” Yeah, next time you think about seeing if your eyes will pop out when you sneeze with your mouth closed, maybe don't actually follow through on it.