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Is cracking your knuckles bad for you?

Is cracking your knuckles bad for you? This is a question that just bugs me. It seems to relax me somehow when I crack my muscles or pull my joints to make that popping noise. I have been told so many times by various people hat it is bad for me. Is this true?

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Answer #1

Dear beam_me, In 1990, a researcher looked at the hand function in 200 adults, age 45 and above. He didn’t find a greater tendency toward arthritis in the 74 habitual knuckle crackers, but the knuckle crackers were more likely to have swollen hands and reduced hand strength. However, an accompanying editorial posed this idea: Perhaps a person must have looser-than-average ligaments in order to crack knuckles in the first place. And those loose ligaments and joints may set the person up for other sorts of joint damage.

In another study, published back in 1975, the researcher visited an old age home and asked patients whether or not they had cracked their knuckles when they were young. He found 15 who remembered they had, and 13 who remembered they had not. When the researcher X-rayed their hands, and compared the two groups, he found no difference in arthritis rates.

Sue…P.S. It can be very annoying to others and we try not to annoy others.

Answer #2

It can be bad for you in the long run as you get much older. While cracking the cartilage in joints (that act as a padding on the bone) rub together the friction of the cartilage against each other causes it to thin over a period of time which can later result in varios joint problems. Doing it once a while is okay if it helps you unwind but really, dont make it a habit it really is not good.

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