Cracking the knuckles is probably harmless
health.harvard.edu
health.harvard.edu
(Also, my wife specialises in helping a subset of the population for whom cracking the knuckles is far from harmless... i suspect she’d be furious at this headline.)
> Cracking the knuckles is probably harmless. 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.
I'd guess that "overly vigorous knuckle cracking" manifests as a symptom in people with underlying mental health conditions.
(My wife treats hypermobile people... dislocations are prevalent there, in many many joints.)
> (My wife treats hypermobile people... dislocations are prevalent there, in many many joints.)
I belong to a very different subset: my finger joints (typically the last joint, nearest the tip, as opposed to the knuckle near the palm) crack very easily, often involuntarily (particularly in cold weather), or with a minimal amount of opposing muscular 'flex' while curling my fingers.
The sound they make is a higher pitched click or snap, like a breaking twig, compared to the typical 'pop' of a cracked knuckle (which I can't actually do).
I haven't ever come across anyone else whose fingers do this, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Is there a name for this?
> Rheumatoid arthritis
Popping joints can also occur with forms of inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
High-pitched popping sounds from joints are more likely to be from inflammatory arthritis. Lower sounds can be from either inflammatory or noninflammatory arthritis, although this may be hard to distinguish
From: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325341#what-condit...
...but I don’t think this one symptom could be nearly enough to be evidence of that.
Could just be specific to the joint architecture. Everyone is a little different.
I wonder, the terms we're using to describe sounds are a bit subjective (especially as they are on a continuum). Is there any medical site that gives representative examples of the various joint sounds?
I've regained all of the extension motion and probably 70% of my retraction motion (moving toes towards knee), but only about 30% of the muscle strength. Unfortunately it still swells up after long periods of standing or hiking but I'm rarely able to crack it anymore, and really wish I could on those bad days.
Glad to hear it probably doesn’t.
It does feel like a release to me, which if it is “similar to a popping balloon,” holds some merit.
I learned, to a lot of delight, to crack the “third” joint of my thumb, sometime in high school. It’s something I often spontaneously do.. anyone I’d be holding hands with. They invariably get a little creeped out. Then ask me to do the other one.