nope, cracking your knuckles will not cause arthritis

if you crack your knuckles, you are one of the 54 per cent of people who report engaging in the noisy habit. and if you don’t fall into this group and you are wondering why anyone would want to squeeze their fingers until they pop, some of the reasons include: stress relief, the sound is enjoyable, habit and it feels good.

what’s that noise?
contrary to popular opinion, the cracking noise is not the sound of bones rubbing against each other or tendons snapping against them. the sound made when you crack your knuckles is actually little bubbles of nitrogen bursting in the joints, according to harvard medical school . the nitrogen is contained within a substance called synovial fluid , a highly viscous liquid that acts as a lubricant for our joints.

when we stretch or bend the joints in the knuckles (or other areas that crack like the ankles or neck) the bubbles of gas burst or pop — resulting in the familiar cracking sound. the release of pressure can make whatever joint you crack feel looser and provide a more comfortable range of motion.

those of us who are chronic, or habitual, knuckle crackers — defined as those who do it more than five times a day — may notice that you can’t crack your knuckles immediately after doing so. that’s because it takes about 20 minutes for the fluid to reform within the joint.

is knuckle cracking bad?
your parents may have told you at some point that cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis, but it turns out they were probably just annoyed by the sound.

there is no evidence that cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis, according to several studies done on the habit. in fact, a california doctor, dr. donald unger, even experimented on himself, spending 50 years cracking only the knuckles on his left hand while leaving the right uncracked. unger cracked his left knuckles as least twice per day — meaning he cracked them more than 36,000 times while not touching his right hand.

after 50 years, he found no evidence of arthritis in either hand, and was eventually awarded the ig nobel prize (presented the night before the real nobel prizes) for medicine in 1998. legend has it unger initiated the study in an attempt to prove his mother wrong about knuckle- cracking leading to arthritis.

however, while cracking your knuckles probably won’t give you arthritis, some experts say it’s probably a habit worth dropping anyway as there have been reports of injuries and it could lead to reduced grip strength. it’s also not a great idea to crack your knuckles or any other body part if it causes pain or discomfort in the joint as it could be a sign of an underlying condition.