Cracking Your Knuckles: 50 Years of Research Says It's Harmless
Should you stop cracking your knuckles?
A doctor cracked his left knuckles twice a day for 50 years to prove his mother wrong—and found no arthritis. Studies confirm knuckle cracking doesn't cause osteoarthritis or weaken grip, though neck cracking carries real risks. The pop comes from collapsing gas bubbles in synovial fluid, a harmless physiological process.
The basic answer is it doesn't.
- ofalkaed
Within a few minutes of picking up a guitar my fingers start to stiffen up, I crack them and then all is well, been doing this for 30 odd years now and the joints of my hands are some of the few which don't cause me problems at this point in my life. I never could crack my knuckles before I started playing guitar and if I stop playing for a few weeks, I cease being able to crack my knuckles.
These articles on knuckle cracking never seem to say anything but state, but sort of maybe could be but your aunt is almost certainly wrong unless or maybe in certain exceptions. For the majority of people I think we crack our knuckles for the same reason we often stretch when we get up, it relieves a tension that needs relieving.
- mpalczewski
Some kids cracked their knuckles. It annoyed some older adults, and instead of telling them to stop they made up some bullshit reason. Classic non assertive behavior. The kids, being kids, believed them. They continued believing them into adulthood. Thus, it became a myth that was passed down.
- pcblues
Any muscle, back and joint pain should first be met with mild strengthening, mild weight loss and mild exercise. It's like turning your computer off and on. Mostly the problems go away. Then check for other things :) Keep remembering to relax and move, from your fingers to your wrists and shoulders. And keep trying different set-ups and equipment if you can. There is a pretty magic set-up for most people. 30+ years myself into being on a computer nearly all the time personally and professionally. Back is starting to hurt again. Time to take my own advice again :)
- modeless
This is a bit weird, but I started getting mild wrist pain from computer use in college, and I credit two things with reversing it. One was rock climbing which strengthened my forearms and wrists, and the other was developing a habit of cracking my wrist joints. I stopped rock climbing many years ago but I continue to crack my wrists to this day. The habit causes me to flex and stretch my wrists every so often while I'm working and I really think that has helped prevent the development of repetitive strain injuries from mouse and keyboard use.
- ElijahLynn
This is good to read about, and nice that it has and research referenced.
It's interesting to know that it's gas collapsing. And nothing to do with the bone rubbing.
And it makes you wonder what chiropractors are actually doing when they're popping your back... It's probably not doing anything to help you with your pain. And it's probably not actually adjusting anything.
- JoelMcCracken
So, I injured my left index finger to the point of tendon interruption. It was approx 2018. I was fortunate enough to have surgery that repaired it to near 100% extension.
So, I clearly have no synovial fluid at that joint. The tendons were in it, and so by necessity it was also violated.
I just popped that knuckles, and it sounds exactly like the others. Anyone have any ideas?
- fisian
Donald L. Unger got an Ig-nobel prize for cracking the knuckles on only one hand for 60 years. n=1 but evidence over a very long time
- t-3
So, I can crack the 2nd and 3rd joints of my fingers just by flexing them. My thumbs don't crack, but I can push the first joint through the range of motion until it locks and pushes the knuckle out the palm side. I can also push my shoulders out of their sockets, getting about another 2 inches of reach. Are my fingers and shoulders just strangely double jointed or is this something different?