Haymaker

This is one of those questions people have wondered about for years. Is cracking your knuckles bad for you or is it actually ok to crack them and feel the relief that comes from doing so? The jury seems to still be out as to a concrete answer. To start with let’s take a quick look at what actually happens when you crack your knuckles.

Because of that grinding noise you hear when you crack your knuckles many people believe that what is actually happening is that the bones in your knuckle joints are rubbing together resulting in the noise. The truth is that the bones in your knuckles aren’t rubbing together at all.

What is actually taking place is that the air that is trapped between the bones that make up your knuckles is being released when you manipulate them. When that air is released it makes a popping noise and that’s what you hear. So now that you know what happens when you crack your knuckles, onto the real question; is it good for your knuckles when you release the air that is trapped in between them? There seems to be two completely different views on this.

There are many people, both professional and non-professionals, who agree that cracking your knuckles is indeed bad for you. It is reasoned that each time you crack or bend your knuckles that you damage the ligaments located between the joints in your fingers. Over the course of time this action supposedly damages the cushion between your fingers. This is one side of the argument.

The other side of the debate reasons that cracking your knuckles doesn’t cause any real harm at all. Like every other joint in your body, your knuckles have a gooey substance called synovial fluid that serves to coat the surfaces of the cartilage on your bones at the joints. When you manipulate the joints this gooey substance pulls apart and breaks the vacuum it created between the bones. That pocket of air trapped between your knuckles is a buildup of negative pressure. The technical term for it is called cavitation. This air pocket sort of pops like a bubble would you crack your knuckles and then the gooey stuff dissolves the air. Some believe there is no real harm caused when this happens.

Although the jury is still out on a solid answer to this question, it is a fact that cracking your knuckles does not cause you to develop arthritis. This is because there is no real bone manipulation going on each time you crack your knuckles. You might also be interested to know that is takes about twenty minutes for that gooey stuff to re-establish a seal on the cartilage of your knuckles and that’s why you can’t just keep cracking them over and over.

Until there is concrete evidence one way or another whether or not it isn’t harmful to crack your knuckles many people believe that the safest way to crack them is by pulling them apart.

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