How to Stop Cracking Your Knuckles. Knuckle cracking is a common habit which anyone can develop. Even though you may enjoy the sensation it brings, it can drive the people around you crazy and lead to some unwanted side effects down the. Cracking your knuckles can have some bad side effects. Contrary to popular belief, arthritis isn't actually one of them. Chances are that someone has told you that popping your knuckles is a bad.
If you've ever laced your fingers together, turned your palms away from you and bent your fingers back, you know what knuckle popping sounds like. Joints produce that CRACK when bubbles burst in the fluid surrounding the joint. Joints are the meeting points of two separate bones, held together and in place by connective tissues and ligaments. Many of the joints in our bodies are surrounded by synovial fluid, a thick, clear liquid. When you stretch or bend your finger to pop the knuckle, you are causing the bones of the joint to pull apart. As they do, the connective tissue capsule that surrounds the joint is stretched. By stretching this capsule, you increase its volume.
And as we know from chemistry class, with an increase in volume comes a decrease in pressure. So as the pressure of the synovial fluid drops, gases dissolved in the fluid become less soluble, forming bubbles through a process called cavitation.
When the joint is stretched far enough, the pressure in the capsule drops so low that these bubbles burst, producing the pop that we associate with knuckle cracking. It takes about 25-30 minutes for the gas to redissolve into the joint fluid. During this period of time, your knuckles will not crack. Once the gas is redissolved, cavitation is once again possible, and you can start popping your knuckles again.
As for the harms associated with this habit, according to Anatomy and Physiology Instructors' Cooperative, only one in-depth study regarding the possible detriments of knuckle popping has been published. This study, done by Raymond Brodeur and published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, examined 300 knuckle crackers for evidence of joint damage. The results revealed no apparent connection between joint cracking and arthritis; however, habitual knuckle poppers did show signs of other types of damage, including soft tissue damage to the joint capsule and a decrease in grip strength. This damage is most likely a result of the rapid, repeated stretching of the ligaments surrounding the joint. A professional baseball pitcher experiences similar, although obviously heightened, effects in the various joints of his pitching arm. But assuming you haven't signed a multimillion dollar contract to constantly pop your knuckles, it hardly seems worth the possible risk to your joints.
On the positive side, there is evidence of increased mobility in joints right after popping. When joints are manipulated, the Golgi tendon organs (a set of nerve endings involved in humans' motion sense) are stimulated and the muscles surrounding the joint are relaxed.
This is part of the reason why people can feel 'loose' and invigorated after leaving the chiropractor's office, where cavitation is induced as part of the treatment. Backs, knees, elbows and all other movable joints are subject to the same kind of manipulation as knuckles are. The following are some views from WikiAnswers contributors:. It doesnt make them bigger, and it doesn't harm them, its justthe air being removed from in between the joints. I don't know butI HAVE to crack my back and neck or I can't move sometimes. I didsuffer a lower back injury in 1993 when I fell about 12 feet atwork. I landed basically 'sitting down'.
Anyway, I can crack mytoes, ankles (on occasion) knees, knuckles, neck, back, rightelbow, and sometimes even my sturnum. Weird I know, I have relievedheadaches in both other people and myself by either cracking theneck or back. I have been cracking my knuckles for as long as i can rememberI'm only 22 and yes it makes then bigger i can feel the joints inmy fingers huge!
I don't pull them i bend them into the palm of myhand and with my other hand crack the joint closet to my nail thenproceed to crack the joint above that with the thumb for that hand.I've stopped cracking them for about 2 months now and i haveserious pain, I've been told its the liquid between my jointscoming back (in case you don't know the pop/crack you hear when youcrack your knucles is a liquid/cusion between your joints/bones tomove them efficently and comfortably) So when you crack/pop you arecracking that cusion so its bone rubbing against bone! And whenthat cusion starts to build back up you crack it again! Its hurtsfor me now not to crack because i keep stopping and like a nervoustwitch I forget and crack them which relieves the pain!
But thelong term effect will happen to the point that you cant even crackthem to relieve the pain that's arthitist people! Some people whoread this might not understand because they haven't experiencedthis yet but trust me if you've started please stop and if yourlike me and been doing it forever do what i do, think about thatliquid/cushion popping creating you bones to rub against each othereven though i forget once in a while my fingers hurt way less nowthat I've stopped then when i first starting to end my fingercracker. I am 20 i have been cracking my knuckles since i was about 6years old and i have never had a problem yet. So if you are aperson that think cracking your knuckles causes you harm your wrongand i am living prof of that.
Yes, it will make them bigger and it usually becomes like anOCD which means its an like addiction and hard to stop. At 20 theabove poster is still young enough to not have any serious problemsBUT later in life there is the possibility of things likearthritis. I've been doing it for about 6/7 years and at 29 myfingers are starting to hurt every time i do it, and hurt for along time after i do it and hurt when i don't do it until i do itagain to ease it - (creating a vicious circle). My fingers andjoints feel swollen (but don't look it).
Also I had no problemsbefore i started doing it. So i have stopped. I advise you do NOTtake it up, its like any other habit. I heard that cracking your knuckles doesn't really make themlarger. Just an urban legend.
Could be wrong though. I believe so. I had small knuckles, picked up cracking myknuckles, and they got big. I quit for about a month or two andthey became small again. To test it further i cracked only onefinger for a week and it got bigger. Also i have 5 friends in mygroup, one cracks there knuckles and there huge. The rest who donot have small.
Some people may not suffer from it. But i believecracking your knuckles does add to making your knuckles bigger. Itdepends on the person, but for the most case, yes. If you want to try and make your knuckles bigger try lightlyhitting a solid surface like a wall, your bones will re-heal andcase over, also it kills the nerves so you can hit harder withoutit hurting as much. But cracking them does not lead to bigger orstronger knuckles. I used to crack my knuckles and they used to be small and Icracked them for about 3 years and now they are big.
I quit now andthey don't get small agin! Now that I stoped its like a craving andI gotta mingle with my fingers insted of cracking them.
Mysuggestion is don't start and, if you have, stop. Yes, it does make them bigger and it can cause you to havearthritis when you are older so I would advise you to stop doing itbecause it is kind of addicting. My hands hurt all the time now dueto cracking my knuckles. Now that I'm older it causes me to havesevere pain in my hands and fingers!.
No, it doesn't. My mom is 53 and she has been cracking herknuckles since she was 7 and no problems. I say it does make your knuckles bigger. I'm only 13 andstarted cracking them when i was 9 and they are fat and don't fitinto my mom moms wedding ring very well. Actually, it does not make them bigger. There's what I believea wall of mucus or something between the knuckle and the finger.pull your finger as hard as you can to test it out. You can alsosee like a little hole between the knuckle and finger when you pullit.
I punched walls and now my knuckles are bigger, I tested thiswith my right, now my right knuckles are bigger than my leftknuckles. My right knuckles are also more harder. I don't think that popping your knuckles makes them any biggerI am 11 and i have been popping my knuckles since i was 7. When youpop your fingers a gas (nitrogen?) is released and that is whatmakes the popping sound. Yes, I do have slightly larger knucklesthan my friends its not even noticeable though.
I have always hadslightly larger knuckles though. Also you feel immediate relief andyou feel more supple. I also pop my neck and back. Answer: Your knuckle joints are moved, releasing small bubbles of Nitrogen which creates the small popping sounds.
It is not dangerous to do this, but if practiced to the extreme, your fingers will not bend slightly. Also, your knuckles may expand. Answer: It is suggested that you will get arthritis/bad joints. This may or may not be true. Having had a joint (elbow, knee) that will not move right, and had to 'crack' it to get full mobility back, I think to a degree 'cracking' a join is 'normal' as long as it is not every second.
Cracking my right Elbow is like once a month. I wake up, it's 'stuck' I move it, it goes 'crack' It now moves. You are in a very high risk of arthritis. So I recommend not to do that so often Answer: ^ This is not true! There has been scientific research done which proves that knuckle cracking, while probably not great for the joint and internal ligaments, does not actually cause arthritis. They want to seem tough so people would be scared, or they do it for fun or anger.
ANSWER I heard it can make your knuckles look really ugly. This is bad if you want to be a hand model. ANSWER In fact, it does harm your knuckles. I'm the living proof. It doesn't hurt, but the joints I cracked are swollen.
The XRay scans certainly didn't look pretty. Probably damaged ligaments said the doctor. In case you wonder: my general health is excellent, I have never broken a bone in my life and no one in my family has arthritis, neither do I.
So, speaking from experience, please be careful. It does not make your fingers less functional, but it does make them ugly. That is, 3 to 5 millimeters extra on every side of a cracked knuckle. Another Persons view: I crack my knuckles toes and just about everything else about twenty times a day and in my opinion it loosens up your body and makes it easier to move I'm a dancer and I can't dance with out having my back popped by someone who knows what their doing so I believe cracking you joints is good and cant 'deform' you. Cracking your knuckles is not bad for you.
It is just bubbles in the fluid surrounding your knuckles, and then bursting the bubbles by moving your joints in a particular way. If it was bone against bone it would hurt you. (EDIT) Orthodontists checked 400 habitual knuckle-crackers, and came to the conclusion that it doesn't do anything serious. But, it showed that habitual knuckle-crackers seem to get soft tissue erosion and small joint damage. It won't do anything worse than making your grip weaker, though, so no one has to worry about it. People have different ways of doing it. I have 3 ways i can do it.
One is by simply pushing your fingers down towards the palm of your hand. Another way is by pushing them back into the knuckle, and bending the middle joint of your finger. (if that makes sense.) Another way is by cracking your fingers sideways. This is more difficult but it's what i do without realising:P Place your thumb on one of your fingers, and your index finger on the other side of that finger, then pull your index finger towards you. I'm not encouraging you to do it as to all the rumours about arthritis and wearing down cartilage and what not, but it's become a habit of mine when i get nervous or bored. It also doesn't help that I'm a figit and need to be doing something constantly:P. It can be a sign of nervousness to crack joints, usually the neck, when cracking your toes its usually means that you're bored and knuckles seem to be a somewhat universal sign for a preparation for action.
It's not always a physical activity like a sport or beginning to play music, it can even be getting ready to talk to someone in such a way that might be stressful or otherwise nerve-wracking like starting an argument as a sign of superior strength. Knuckle cracking doesn't cause any pain and can be pleasurable because it relieves stiffness in joints, by the way recent studies (cited here: argues against the link to arthritis.
In summary it's mostly linked to stress.
Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling Knuckle cracking is a common behavior enjoyed by many. It can become a habit or a way to deal with nervous energy; some describe it as a way to “release tension.” For some, it’s simply an annoying thing that other people do. If you’ve ever wondered why stretching the fingers in certain ways causes that familiar noise or whether knuckle cracking is harmful in some way, read on. Despite how common it is, there has been considerable debate regarding where the noise comes from. Fortunately — at least for those of us who are curious about it — knuckle cracking has been the subject of a fair amount of research. Here’s some of what we know about knuckle cracking. The “cracking” of knuckle cracking seems to be produced by increasing the space between finger joints.
This causes gas bubbles in the joint fluid to collapse or burst. It’s a bit like blowing up a balloon and then stretching the walls of the balloon outward until it pops. The reason you can’t crack the same knuckle or joint twice right away is that it takes some time for the gas bubbles to accumulate again in the joint. Cracking the knuckles is probably. Although there have been occasional reports of dislocations or tendon injuries from overly vigorous knuckle cracking, such problems seem very much to be the exception and not the rule. How do we know that knuckle cracking is harmless? One of the most convincing bits of evidence suggesting that knuckle cracking is harmless comes from a California physician who reported on he conducted on himself.
Over his lifetime, he regularly cracked the knuckles of only one hand. He checked x-rays on himself after decades of this behavior and found no difference in arthritis between his hands. A came to a similar conclusion. There are rare medical reports of problems associated with this behavior that may relate to how much force is applied and one’s particular technique.
For example, joint dislocations and tendon injuries have been described after attempts to crack knuckles. Published in 1990 found that among 74 people who regularly cracked their knuckles, their average grip strength was lower and there were more instances of hand swelling than among 226 people who did not crack their knuckles. However, the incidence of arthritis was the same in both groups. And a created a mathematical model of a knuckle that helped confirm that the noise comes from collapsing gas bubbles. What about other sounds coming from the joints? The origin of most joint noises, such as popping sounds or cracking of the knees when squatting, is uncertain.
They may come from the kneecap rubbing on the bones below, or a tendon sliding across an irregular surface. However, in the absence of pain, swelling, or other joint symptoms, these sounds are probably nothing to be concerned about, and there is no reliable way to silence them. The bottom line on knuckle cracking If you want to crack your knuckles, it’s unlikely to cause you harm. But if you want someone else to stop cracking their knuckles, you’ll need a better reason than telling them they’re ruining their joints. Mangiameli Although it’s true, it isn’t dangerous and doesn’t represent any depreciation of a bony structure, it actually can weaken grip strength.
There are several publications in pub Med that point to this. It’s most notably talked about amongst gymnasts. It’s postulated to create laxity in the ligaments and tendons that traverse the joints of contention, thereby weakening their contribution toward grip strength. I can only imagine that the strength reduction is modest at best. Kristofer Young, DC Arthritis Causes Knuckle Cracking That’s right – or at the very least plausible – that you’ve had it backwards all these years. Arthritis causes knuckle cracking, not the other way around.
There is no medical evidence that knuckle cracking causes arthritis; not one study. If a young person had mild discomfort or stiffness in his hands, would he crack his knuckles to make them feel better?
Yes, he would; and he does. In my chiropractic practice, I find that young people who crack their knuckles, have early, mild arthritis. These same young people also usually have signs, obvious to a trained physician, of arthritis in their necks and other parts of their spines. There is nothing inherently wrong with knuckle cracking. It simply must be recognized as a probable early warning sign of arthritis, and we need to get our story straight!
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