Many people crack their fingers to relax or stretch them out. This makes a loud popping noise, which might bother others. Scientists aren’t completely sure why knuckles crack, but one idea is that it happens when gas bubbles in the fluid around the joints burst. Another idea suggests that the sound comes from the joint itself making space.
Some used to think that cracking knuckles could lead to arthritis, but studies have shown it doesn’t. Dr. Donald Unger did an interesting study in which he cracked his left hand’s knuckles for 50 years while leaving his right hand alone. Surprisingly, he didn’t get arthritis in either hand. This shows that knuckle cracking might not be as harmful as once thought.
How Do You Get the Cracking Sound?
When you crack your knuckles, you hear a sound like “pop.” It’s not bones breaking, but gas bubbles in the joints bursting. These bubbles form in the lubricating fluid in your joints. When you move your fingers in certain ways, the pressure changes inside the joint, making the bubbles burst, and that’s what makes the cracking sound.
What Happens When You Crack Your Fingers?
Some people crack their knuckles a lot, which means they bend their fingers in a way that makes a sound. When you do this, your joints feel better and can move more easily. Little air bubbles form in the joint fluid because of the change in pressure when you crack your knuckles. This is what makes the popping sound. You have to wait a little while for the bubbles to go away before you can crack them again.
Some people say cracking your knuckles can give you arthritis, but there’s not much proof of that. There are a few rare cases where someone hurt their hand by cracking too hard, but it’s not common, as reported in Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Researchers have looked into whether cracking your knuckles might damage your joints over time. They did some tests in labs and found it could theoretically happen, but there’s no solid evidence that it leads to arthritis.
A few studies have looked at people who crack their knuckles, but they couldn’t find a clear link between that and arthritis. One study found that people who crack their knuckles had less hand swelling and better grips, but they still had arthritis at similar rates to those who didn’t crack their knuckles. Still another study found a possible link between cracking your fingers and less arthritis in one joint.
But these studies didn’t say which joints were cracked or how often, which could be important. Also, they didn’t look at how long people had been cracking their knuckles, which might affect whether it causes arthritis.
Arthritis in the hands gets worse as you get older. Because of this, it might hurt your hands and be hard to write or hold things. Researchers are looking into whether doing things like cracking your fingers might help keep you from getting hand arthritis since there is no fix.
Is it Good or Bad?
The newest research on the human body suggests that we never walked on our knuckles during evolution. But nowadays, many people still crack their knuckles, despite warnings that it might cause arthritis. But in a study that came out in 1998, a doctor named Donald Unger showed that wasn’t true. For fifty years, he cracked the fingers of one hand and used the other hand as a control. He was surprised to find that neither hand had arthritis, which means that cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis.
Unger’s study won him an Ig Nobel Prize, awarded for research that makes people laugh and then think. Despite previous studies reaching similar conclusions, Unger’s dedication to testing his mother’s belief about knuckle cracking earned him recognition. Other doctors had also investigated this, including Robert Swezey, who conducted a study with his son in 1975, and found no evidence of arthritis linked to knuckle cracking, as reported in Scientific American.
David Kingsley, a bone expert at Stanford University, was asked by his son’s class if cracking your knuckles was bad for you. He knew that the medical literature didn’t have any clear answers, but it did give him ideas for how to study it. His son’s class even came up with clever ideas, like asking old people in nursing homes how often they crack their knuckles. It’s interesting that these studies also didn’t find a link between cracking your knuckles and arthritis.
Even though people are worried and warn against it, study shows that cracking your fingers doesn’t cause arthritis. Dr. Unger worked hard for 50 years to test this belief, which made him famous and showed that even common beliefs need to be tested scientifically.
Facts and Myths about Knuckle Cracking
Myths
- Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis: Many believe this, but studies say otherwise. Cracking your knuckles doesn’t give you arthritis.
- Knuckle cracking makes your joints weak: No proof says this is true. It won’t make your joints weaker or prone to injury.
- Bigger knuckles from cracking: Knuckle size mostly depends on your genes, not cracking habits.
- Cracking can dislocate your fingers: Not at all! The noise comes from gas bubbles, not bones moving.
Interesting Facts
- The sound comes from gas bubbles: When you stretch your fingers, bubbles burst in the fluid around your joints, making the sound.
- Cracking won’t harm unless it hurts: Unless it causes you pain, there’s no proof it’s bad for you.
- It might help with stress: Some feel better after cracking. It’s not fully understood, but it might release tension.
- A one-sided study: For fifty years, a doctor cracked only one hand and saw no change in health. But it’s not really proof.
Cracking your knuckles is usually harmless. It might annoy others, but it won’t hurt your joints. If it hurts, though, it’s good to check with a doctor.
