Doctor issues chilling warning about cracking your neck - and it's not for the reason you think

A doctor has issued a stark warning , advising people to avoid cracking their own neck due to the potential health hazards. Doctor Ever Arias warns that this habit could lead to severe consequences such as breaking your neck or even causing a stroke.

Many individuals enjoy cracking their neck or seek out a chiropractor to alleviate discomfort or pain. While this is generally harmless, Dr. Arias cautions that it can be dangerous if done improperly.

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Reacting to another creator's video about how she broke her neck with her "own hands" attempting to crack it, he recounted his own experience working in a hospital. Dr. Arias said: "So there was a 20-something-year-old patient that walked into the emergency room after she said that she's tried to crack her neck and after the second time that she cracked it she heard a snap and started having a lot of pain."

"She walked into the emergency room, after being seen and getting scanned we found that she had a cervical compression fracture."

A compression fracture is a break in a vertebra (a spine bone) that subsequently collapses, reports the Mirror .

In this patient's case, she had a condition that caused her to flex her neck "too much" while trying to crack it. He continued: "Basically she also was found to have a diagnosis of hypermobility syndrome and because of that she was very mobile."

"What happened is that she ended up flexing her neck a little bit too much and started having the compression fracture."

He also cautioned about the risks of someone else cracking your neck.

He shared that his colleagues have seen patients who suffered a stroke after "they had a chiropractor manipulate their neck". "They ended up having a vertebral artery dissection that caused them to have a stroke," he revealed.

"So it's important that if you're going to a chiropractor you tell them, 'Don't touch my neck'. It's also crucial to understand that I never try to, you know, crack any of my neck joints or anything like that because often that can lead to some damage."

"You could also cause your own vertebral artery dissection or other injuries to vessels in the structure of the neck. It's a very delicate structure here, so just hopefully you use that information to never crack your neck again."