Is cracking your knuckles, ribs, back, neck, shoulders, knees, wrists, and toes healthy or harmful?

Answer 1

Answer from Peter Bonafede, M.D., medical director of the Providence Arthritis Center at Providence Portland Medical Center:

Likely not. I'm not saying "definitely no" because, while cracking knuckles is common, research on its effects is not. We have only a handful of studies on the subject. None shows a definite link between knuckle cracking and arthritis.

However, cracking your knuckles is neither harmless nor desirable. The arthritis connection may be an old wives' tale, but cracking your knuckles can hurt your hand in other ways, and there's no benefit to it. Some students crack their knuckles after writing a great deal, but cracking knuckles isn't a solution for writer's cramp. Instead, take a break, and bend and stretch out your fingers a few times.

Kids may develop a habit of cracking their knuckles because they like the sound. The "crack" comes because of a change in the synovial fluid, the lubricant that bathes the joints. When finger bones are suddenly stretched apart, the space between the joints widens, and an air bubble forms in the synovial fluid. The bubble quickly bursts and makes a sharp sound.

Nature did not intend us to repeatedly stretch the ligaments of the finger joints. I found two medical articles that talked about patients who had injured their hands from knuckle cracking. One over-stretched his ligaments and dislocated his fingers. Another partially tore the ligament in her thumb.

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.

What does cause arthritis? There are many kinds of arthritis, but the most common, osteoarthritis, is a function of age and genetic predisposition. If you X-ray hands of people age 65, 70 percent will have arthritis. Osteoarthritis tends to be a bit worse in the dominant hand.

The bottom line: While cracking knuckles may not get you arthritis faster, it won't win you many fans and might injure those fingers in other ways. So it's best not done.

Answer 2

by and large the practice is not helpful . cracking knuckles is the most common one that people do . the knuckles will suffer joint problems if this is done too often or for too long.
the same goes for the other ones you mentioned but the neck back ribs knees are ones that people will seek help with often from someone who knows nothing about what they are doing . this can result in some really damage even the first time.
wrists and toes are the same in so much of the likely hood of an early injury. there is no benefit to do this that medical science supports. when we crack our knuckles we are really only releasing air from the soft connective tissue in the joints . this
makes a sound crack but that's about all its doing.
now a chiropractor does some things that may seems similar but even though i am not a fan or supporter of those doctors at least they have an understanding of the skeletal structure and how it is held together and as such when they crack some part of the person they are at least much less likely to cause harm then some guy who has never done this before.
so in summary cracking joints is not harmful most of the time but if done too often or if done by someone who is helping you and does not know what they are doing that can be dangerous harmful.
over all no real benefit from doing it and if done rarely by oneself not likely to cause harm .

Answer 3

Healthy isnt really a word to describe it. It doesn't improve your health. It may make you feel a bit better for a while. It's not totally prove to be harmful. People assume you can develop arthritis from doing it but that is not true. (if that were true then chiropractors wouldn't crack your spine.)
The sound that your joints make when you "crack" or "pop" them it is merely the carbon dioxide in the fluid between your joints making the sound.Not your bones actually cracking.
So, its just an old wives tale that it can cause arthritis.

Answer 4

Every thing cracks,ankles, toes, knees, hips, back, shoulders, elbows, wrists, knuckles, neck ,and jaw...a lot more too,don't worry,it's healthy and normal,just don't do it on purpose or you'll become stiff and won't be able to move easily. Hoped i helped xoxoxo Little miss usa xoxoxo

Answer 5

Cracking your knuckles, ribs, back, neck, shoulder, knees, wrists, and toes is really harmful because it starts containing germs in our body, which is really bad for out body. You will have hard time moving around, and you will also feel a really big pain in your body, when you work.

Answer 6

It's not good for ya in the long run., meaning if you continuously do it, it's bad. If every once in a while maybe not so bad. The rumor has it that you develope arthiritis over the years as you get older and could even cripple you depending on how often you do it. Be safe and don't.

Answer 7

My dad used to tell me cracking my knuckles would make them huge. What a load. My knuckles are just as normal looking as anyone else's. What I want to know is, how in heck do you crack your ribs??? Without actually breaking them I mean.

Answer 8

I have been told by a chiropractor that it doesn't hurt a person, but I have to disagree. I have popped my knucles and back since I was a child. My high school class ring no longer fits over my knuckle, and my back is constantly stiff.

Answer 9

I've heard two different points of view on this.

I was told no, by a chiropractor and a massage therapist, separately.

I was told yes, by hearsay, from ordinary, non-medical people.

So, I assume it's ok. ...

Answer 10

Depends much on what the prompting factor is..If it is the result of tensing of muscles, it is an indication of something needing to be taken care of by a professional. You may get relief from what you are doing but it is not taking care of the causative factor.