The exact mechanism explaining what happens in your joints when they crack and pop isn't completely understood. However, the general consensus is that the sounds result from the spine releasing gas that has built up in the joints.
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"Regardless of why it's there, stretching or trying to crack your back releases this gas, which sometimes results in an audible popping or cracking sound," says Dr. Kenneth Palmer, an orthopedic surgeon at Houston Methodist.
"If you're gently stretching your back and it cracks or pops naturally, it's likely not something that's bad for you or going to cause long-term damage," says Dr. Palmer. "But if you're using forceful, quick movements to try to crack your back or if you feel like you need to crack your back regularly, that's when we start to worry."
Other joint cracking is a mixed bag. Cracking your neck, for instance, isn't a great habit to pick up either, since doing so regularly can cause inflammation around important nerves. There are also the risks of adjusting your neck incorrectly, much like the aforementioned ones from improperly cracking your back.
There's better news for people who like to pop their knuckles. While some well-meaning adult probably told you not to indulge in the habit as a kid, the truth is that cracking your knuckles likely isn't as bad for you as urban legend has made it out to be.
Some people crack their knuckles by pulling the tip of each finger one at a time until they hear a crack. Others make a tight fist or bend their fingers backwards away from the hand, cracking the lot at once. If you are one of those people who sits and cracks your knuckles while others wince, at some point somebody is bound to have told you that cracking your joints gives you arthritis.
Close to the knuckle In fact, very few studies have been carried out at all. Perhaps one of the most well-known is the self-inflicted research rewarded with an Ig Nobel Prize in 2009. For more than 60 years, a Californian doctor called Donald Unger cracked the knuckles of his left hand at least twice a day, leaving his right knuckles uncracked. His conclusion? "I'm looking at my fingers, and there is not the slightest sign of arthritis in either hand," he said. There have been some other, perhaps more formalised studies carried out. In 1975, twenty-eight residents in a Jewish nursing home in Los Angeles were asked whether they had ever cracked their knuckles habitually. Those who had were less likely to have osteoarthritis in their hands later on.
The most recent study, published just last year, is the most comprehensive so far, because it looks not only at whether people ever crack their knuckles, but also how often they do it. You might guess that cracking your knuckles every fifteen minutes could have a very different effect from doing it once a day, but again it made no difference to rates of osteoarthritis. In fact, there was no difference in the prevalence of osteoarthritis between those who did or did not crack their knuckles.
OK, but could cracking your knuckles cause other forms of damage? There are isolated reports of accidental self-inflicted injury from knuckle-cracking, with injured thumbs and sprained finger ligaments, but these are rare.
As a rule, painless cracking of joints is not harmful. However, common sense would generally suggest that the intentional and repetitive cracking of one's joints not only is potentially bothersome socially but could also be physically troublesome when it produces pain.
Joint "cracking" can result from a negative pressure pulling nitrogen gas temporarily into the joint, such as when knuckles are "cracked." This is not harmful. "Cracking" sounds can also be heard if tendons snap over tissues because of minor adjustments in their gliding paths. This can occur with aging as muscle mass and action change.
While cracking your joints is relatively safe, there are some who are at more risk. Our experts suggest anyone with arthritis or pre-existing joint conditions should not be cracking their joints as it may aggravate their symptoms and lead to serious health problems.
If you suffer from pain and feel you need to crack your joints to relieve pain, especially in your back and neck, then it's best to see a professional. Cracking your own knuckles is relatively safe but you could cause serious damage if you crack your neck or back and have pre-existing medical conditions.
Another study conducted by a California physician set out to determine whether regular knuckle-cracking would be detrimental over the long term. To gather evidence, he performed an experiment on himself, cracking the knuckles of his left hand at least twice a day over a period of 50 years. During that time, he rarely cracked the knuckles of his right hand.
The tale is as old as time: cracking your joints is BAD FOR YOU! Growing up, my parents would tell me off for constantly cracking all my bones, saying that it would give me arthritis. Of course, I carried on cracking away, because my short-term satisfaction will always outweigh long-term health issues. But does cracking your joints actually cause long-term damage?
In moderation, the answer is no. Studies have shown that occasionally cracking your back can help relieve pressure in your spine without adverse effects. However, when done habitually, popping can cause excessive wear on your joints and potentially lead to premature breakdown.
Well to put it simply, your joints make a cracking sound when a bubble forms. Typically, this happens when tension mounts in a joint to the point where synovial fluid rapidly accumulates and cavitation occurs.
That said, there are other factors that come into play when you pop the joints in your spine. Many chiropractors will argue (correctly) that the elements in your spine are far more complicated and vital than those in your knuckles. This being the case, it can be dangerous to put unnecessary pressure on the joints. One study even found a link between spinal manipulation and strokes.
That said, stretching your back in order to crack it can provide a real feeling of relief for many people who spend much of their day sitting. This is because many of the muscles that support the spine can grow stiff and tense after long periods of inactivity and stretching them, even if it's done to inadvertently crack your back, can feel really good.
This can lead your brain to interpret and associate the feeling of cracking your back with a looser, more flexible spine, even though it was the stretching of the muscles that actually provided the feeling.
Perhaps you have heard that cracking your fingers (or knuckles) can lead to arthritis, or that your fingers will become permanently disfigured. Maybe you were told as a child that cracking your fingers would stunt their growth.
So when you hear someone cracking their fingers or knuckles, you may admonish the person for doing irreparable damage to their joints. But is cracking your fingers and other joints really all that bad? The answer may surprise you.
When you crack your fingers, you are stretching (or flexing) the joint past its degree of usual rotation, but not past its anatomic barrier. In other words, you need something else to push it to that point, such as using your other hand to pull back the fingers or to squeeze the knuckles.
When cracking your fingers, toes, shoulders, elbows, back, or neck, the sense of relief is achieved when that tension is released. The joint feels relaxed again, which helps to alleviate stress in the body.
There is actually no evidence that cracking your fingers is harmful or can cause damage. On the contrary, some researchers have discovered a lower incidence of arthritis in people who do crack their fingers.
Cracking your fingers may bring relief, but if you are suffering from chronic pain in your fingers, wrists, elbow, or shoulder, you should consider seeing a specialist. A hand surgeon is the best person to see when it comes to diagnosing and treating conditions affecting those areas.
Whatever their primary reason, knuckle crackers often come to adopt the behavior as a habit. At that point, the act of cracking their knuckles is just something they frequently do throughout the day without putting any thought into it.
Currently, no data supports the notion that cracking your knuckles is bad for orthopedic health. Specifically, there appears to be no causal relationship between knuckle cracking and arthritis. A fairly well-known piece of evidence for the innocuousness of knuckle cracking comes from Dr. Donald L. Unger, a California physician. Over six decades, Dr. Unger carried out a self-experiment in which he regularly cracked the knuckles of his left hand but left alone those of his right hand. At the end of the experiment, X-rays showed no appreciable difference in the progression of arthritis in his hands.
The first thing to do is examine why you crack your knuckles. Understanding your motivation behind the habit can guide your attempts to quit it. Maybe you regularly experience stress, and knuckle cracking provides you with moments of gratification. In that case, you can begin to explore the root of your stress and try to eliminate or mitigate your stressors.
One way to kick a habit is to replace it with another, healthier one. Often, people crack their knuckles because they want something to do with their hands, so a handheld distraction could be an effective resolution. Some alternative coping mechanisms to try are stress balls, fidget devices, therapy dough, stretch bands, and combination puzzles.
Habits tend to have a strong unconscious element to them, so being more mindful and present in the moment can bolster you to make conscious decisions to stop yourself from cracking your knuckles. As you work or go about your day, make it a point to avoid distractions and focus on the small details of your environment and actions. In this way, you can help train your mind to avoid the habit you want to break. 2ff7e9595c