The Truth About Knuckle Cracking: Is It Really Bad for Your Joints?
Knuckle cracking is good for health maybe since there are as such no deep effective research on knuckle cracking. Knuckle cracking is a common way of reliving stress in a kind, knuckle cracking is very common people tend to pop up their knuckles twice/thrice or more than that in a day. There hasn’t been a lot of research on the effects of knuckle cracking, but the limited evidence shows it doesn’t harm your joins.
A doctor even showed this by experimenting on himself. The doctor has experimented on himself over a 50-year period, in the experiment he cracked the knuckles on his left hand two or more times a day but never on his right hand. In the end of the experiment, the knuckles on his left hand were no different than those on his right hand, and neither hand showed signs or symptoms of arthritis.
The reason behind the cracking ?
The study says that as many as 54 percent of people crack their knuckles, they do it for a lot of reasons which are such as sound,the way it feels, nervousness, stress,habit.
Once you start cracking your knuckles for any of these reasons,and when you find yourself unconsciously cracking your knuckles many times a day, it becomes a habit. People who do it five times a day or more are called habitual knuckle crackers.
what causes the cracking or pop ?
The reason the joint makes a popping or cracking sound when pulled is still not completely acknowleged. For a long time, many people attributed the noise to nitrogen bubbles either forming or collapsing in the joint fluid. Others thought it came from movement of the ligaments around the knuckle. In a 2015 study, researchers watched knuckles while they were cracked using an MRI. They found that a cavity formed due to the negative pressure created when the joint was pulled apart quickly. In a 2018 study, suggested that the sound was actually caused by the partial collapse of the cavity. A review of studies noted that it takes 20 minutes for the cavity to fully collapse so a new cavity could be formed.
Side effects :
Cracking your knuckles shouldn’t be painful, cause swelling or change the shape of the joint. If any of these things happen, there is a sign of something else. Although it’s not easy, if you pull hard enough, it’s possible to pull your finger out of the joint or injure the ligaments around the joint. If you notice your joints are painful or swollen while cracking your knuckles, it’s likely due to an underlying condition, such as arthritis or gout.
However, according to the study there is no as such danger in popping your knuckles.