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Have you ever heard of the Ig Nobel prizes? They’re awards given out to people who do research is considered unusual or trivial, which “first make[s] people laugh, and then make[s] them think”. In 2009, the Ig Nobel prize in Medicine was given out for this study:
He didn’t develop arthritis or any other problem in the left hand that he didn’t get in the right, which he took as evidence that cracking your knuckles isn’t bad for you! More generally, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that I can find that cracking your knuckles is bad for you, despite what people may say otherwise.
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There are actually quite a few studies that have looked at this, as well as the Ig Nobel prizes that Steven mentioned below.
In one, the scientists used a very sensitive microphone to listen to the sounds made when someone cracked their knuckles, and found it was actually two sounds. The space between your joints is filled with liquid, with ligaments holding the bones together.When you pull on your joint, you create a change in pressure that causes a vacuum, sucking the ligaments into that space, and creates a bubble, which is the first popping sound. When this bubble forms, the liquid in your joint pushes the ligaments back into their original place, causing the second sound.
Now, the actual action on its own isn’t enough to damage the cartilage in your joint, which is what causes arthritis later in life, but your joints can get swollen if you do it too often. This swelling is caused by inflammation, and too much can lead to damage, and eventually very stiff hands!
I heard Dr. Karl talking a while ago about joint cracking, and he mentioned study, of I think about 300 people, who had been cracking their joints for a long time (around 30 years). They found that most had much weaker hands than people who didn’t crack their knuckles. I’m not sure of the exact details, but I it helps suggest that while it might not hurt you short-term, it might have some not-so-great long-term effects on your hands!
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I presume you ask the question because you crack m?
The medical studies cannot find any evidence that cracking your knuckles is bad for you, but…..I found one medical study where a young teenage girl developed knuckle pads after cracking her knuckles for years….Knuckle pads are firm skin-coloured nodules on your skin on top of your knuckles. But that was only one study where they found 1 patient, so go ahead and keep crackin’
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All the reading I’ve done suggest there is nothing bad about cracking your knuckles – you aren’t going to be doing any permanent damage to the joints of your hands such as developing arthritis later in life. I will say however the sound of someone cracking their knuckles sends shivers up my spine and gives me the heebie jeebies so please don’t do it hehe 🙂
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