The scary reason not to crack your neck: ‘Never going to a chiropractor again’

Crack is whack.

A doctor sent shivers down social media’s collective spine after revealing the shocking reason one should never crack their spine — satisfying though it may be. He detailed the PSA in a video with over 235,000 views on TikTok.

“Story time of why you should never crack your neck,” warned Dr. Ever Arias in the clip.

The physician frequently shares cautionary tales about underreported medical issues with his over 135,000 followers on the platform.

In his latest bone-chilling PSA, captioned “never going to a chiropractor again,” Dr. Arias shared the unsettling tale of a 20-year-old woman who literally broke her neck after popping it.

“So there was a 20-something-year-old patient that walked into the emergency room after she said that she tried to crack her neck,” he explained. “After the second time, she heard a snap and started having a lot of pain.”

She walked into the emergency room, whereupon Arias’ team discovered that the patient had a “cervical compression fracture,” meaning she broke her neck bones.

While most commonly caused by osteoporosis — the weakening of bones with age — in this case it was due to the fact that the patient had “hypermobility syndrome,” in which her joints were exceptionally flexible.

“She ended up flexing her neck a little too much and started having the compression fracture,” Dr. Arias explained.

So while stepping on a crack might not break your mother’s back, cracking her neck very well could.

And that’s unfortunately not the only side effect of having one’s neck cracked.

The medic explained that he saw some chiropractor patients who suffered strokes because the spinal manipulation resulted in a vertebral artery dissection, in which the arteries running along one’s spine had ruptured.

This frightening symptom can also result from DIY spine popping, per the clip.

“Hopefully you use that information to never crack your neck again,” said Dr. Arias.

In March, an Australian man suffered a stroke after cracking his neck in an ill-advised attempt to cure his chronic back pain.

Last year, a Georgia woman became paralyzed after a routine neck adjustment ended up rupturing her spinal arteries in several spots.