Disturbing reason why you should never crack your neck
Cracking your neck might seem like a harmless thing to do, just like you might crack your knuckles. But a doctor has made a shocking discovery that should make you stop doing it, even if it gives you a little bit of relief. In a YouTube video that's been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, Dr Ever Arias explains why you should stop cracking your neck.
He starts off with a quick story about why it's never a good idea to break your neck. Arias is an internal medicine doctor who often talks to his 135,000+ followers about health problems that come with our daily lives. His most recent video is about why you should never go to a chiropractor.
What happens if you crack your neck? You could break your neck?
The doctor tells a heart-breaking story about a woman in her twenties who cracked her neck after trying to break it. She went to the ER after hearing a snap and feeling intense pain. When they checked her out, they found that she had a cervical compression fracture, which means her bones were broken.
Related: How to give a neck massage?
Normally, this kind of fracture would only happen as a result of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a type of disease that affects the bones and causes them to become weaker as you age. But in this case, it wasn't osteoporosis at all. The patient had hypermobility syndrome, which means their joints are super flexible. Eventually, they bent their neck too much, and this is what happened.
If you've ever wanted an excuse not to break your neck, Arias has you covered. He said that some of his patients had strokes after going to chiropractors because of spinal manipulation that caused them to tear up the arteries running along their spine. He also said that this same kind of thing can happen when you hurt yourself.
