Are you a habitual knuckle cracker? I am not, so I've never given it much thought other than finding it annoying when someone can't seem to stop popping their knuckles, but I have heard rumors that cracking your knuckles can give you arthritis and now that I'm a mother I want to get down to the truth so I know whether to nag or not when the time comes if I've given birth to future knuckle crackers.
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So what the heck causes that pop when someone cracks their knuckles? If you are a "knuckle cracker" you are "cracking" your joints. Joints are surrounded by ligaments that keep them together and encapsulated with synovial fluid and a tiny bit of dissolved gas. Lindsay Segal, a graduate practitioner in Samuel Merritt University's physician assistant program says, "The noise you hear with the cracking of a joint is due to a sudden release in joint pressure. This releases the dissolved gasses in the joint fluid." That's why you can't keep hearing a popping noise over and over again. Your joints need time to build up the gas in order to make that popping sound again.
There are other reasons why your joints crack on their own even if you aren't trying to "pop" them, but I'm thinking knuckle crackers don't get off on the noises their joints make unassisted.
Anyway, knuckle crackers are constantly warned that if they keep at it they are going to get arthritis. Is this true? Nope, it's not. There is no link between cracking your knuckles and developing arthritis at a later age.
Does that mean that knuckle cracking is not damaging? Well, there is no evidence that knuckle cracking is either good or bad for your joints, but there are some associated consequences related to habitual long-term knuckle cracking, such as…
- It is associated with joint swelling.
- It has been associated with decreased hand strength.
- If you already have arthritis and crack your joints, you could make your condition worse.
- You will annoy quite a few people.
So basically, it's your call. You can keep on crackin' if you must without the fear of getting arthritis, but may I suggest you find another stress relieving habit like deep breathing or meditation?
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