Did you hear the one about the guy who sneezed so hard he broke a rib? It can happen! Ask Phil Hughes, a pitcher for the New York Yankees who suffered a stress fracture from a giant sneeze. He ended up on the disabled list, and it took him five months to get back on the mound. According to WebMD, a sneeze expels a jet of air at about 100 miles per hour and the quick, sudden motion can aggravate an underlying problem, like back or neck discomfort. You’re also more prone to a sneeze injury if you’ve got a bone-weakening disease, like osteoporosis or cancer.

Sneezes don’t just break ribs. If you suppress a sneeze by pinching your nostrils or closing your mouth, it can rupture your eardrum or damage your middle ear. A woman in Massachusetts sneezed so hard she got whiplash and had to get a neck brace and muscle relaxants for the pain. What about the two huge sneezes that sent Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa’s back into spasms before a game in 2004. He landed on the disabled list with a sprained ligament in his lower back. Traffic accidents and fatalities have also been caused by sneezing. A Boston man recently lost control of his pickup after a sneezing fit behind the wheel. He wasn’t hurt, but his vehicle ended up in the Charles River.