Advice For How To Stop Cracking Your Knuckles

I found a blog about how to stop knuckle cracking. Here was some of their advice:
1) Try to wear something (like a rubber band or a bracelet) that you really like.
2) Tie a ribbon around your finger.
3) Get support. Tell your family and friends about your habit and let them know that you need help stopping.
4) Do something fun to take your mind off of cracking your knuckles.
I put this post up in case anyone is attempting to stop cracking their knuckles. While I fully support you, I personally do not plan on stopping :)

Picture Of The Knuckle Cracker Toy

The picture above is of the knuckle cracking toy that I talked about in my post about a few days ago.

Man Wins Ig Nobel Prize For Knuckle Cracking

Dr. Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, Calafornia received the Medical Price for his lifelong research project about cracking his knuckles. Unger spent 60 years of hi life cracking one of his hands knuckles, while not cracking the other hands. In the end, Unger found that both hands were the same when it came to them not having arthritis. Thus, Unger proved that cracking your knuckles makes no difference and does not lead to arthritis. To read the whole article go to: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/091002-ig-nobel-2009-awards.html

How To Cracking Your Knuckles

I found a 9 step program of how to cracking your knuckles online at (http://www.wikihow.com/Crack-Your-Knuckles).

1. Understand Why Your Knuckles Crack. The noise is believed to be gas bubbles popping inside the fluid in your joints as you move them just so. Given varying joint sizes in different people some people make more noises than others. Some will not be able to crack their knuckles at all.

2. Clench Your Hands So They Interlock (How someone would hold a lucky dice when playing a dice game).

3. Suddenly Straighten Your Finders And Push Slightly Into Each Knuckle. That push should generate an immediate crack.

4. Wait. Once you have cracked your knuckles, it will take some time for the gas bubbles to redissolve into the synovial fluid. This prevents you from cracking them again right away.

5. An easier way is to first Put One Of Your Hands In A Fist.

6. Then Clench Your Other Hand Around.

7. Next Push Down Right Below The Knuckles.

8. Finally You Should Hear A Pop.

Knuckle Cracking Toy

I found this really cool toy that makes the noise of cracking your knuckle. It's called the Yubi-Poki virtual knuckle cracker. It's advertised as a great thing to use after you've used up all of your fingures cracks so that you can keep on enjoying knuckle cracking. (http://inventorspot.com/articles/yubipoki_virtual_dual_purpose_knuckle_cracker_toy_28215).

How I Crack My Knuckles

How do you guys crack your knuckles?
I personally begin with cracking them to the sides. After I've cracked all of them that way I bend my fingures back and get a few more cracks and the icing on the cake is when I bend them down to get any last cracks out. I've found that this is the most successful way to make my figures feel the most relaxed and satisfied with my cracking.

Q&A about Knuckle Cracking from Johns Hopkins University

Hi Guys,
Here's some scientific questions and answers about knuckle cracking:
(http://www.hopkins-arthritis.org/arthritis-news/2007/knuckle-cracking-and-arthritis.html)

Knuckle Cracking Q & A
Dimitrios Pappas, M.D.
Rheumatology Fellow, Johns Hopkins University


Question: Why do people crack knuckles?
Answer: Cracked knuckles feel looser and enjoy more mobility for a while after cracking. It is also possible that as kids people realize that cracking knuckles produces a funny noise and may repeat cracking just to produce the sound. This may make some people habitual “knuckle crackers”.

Question: What causes the sound?
Answer: Joints (knuckles) are covered by a capsule (the joint capsule or synovial capsule). Within the space of this capsule the synovial fluid is contained which acts as a lubricant and also contains nutrients for the adjacent bone surfaces. A variety of gases are continuously dissolved in this fluid. When one cracks a knuckle, the stretching of the capsule lowers the pressure inside the joint and creates a vacuum which is filled by the gas previously dissolved in the synovial fluid. This creates a “bubble” which then bursts producing the characteristic “popping” or “cracking” sound. It takes a while until these gases are re-dissolved in the synovial fluid which explains why knuckles cannot be “re-cracked” immediately.

Question: Are there any side effects to cracking knuckles?
There is no evidence that cracking knuckles causes any damage such as arthritis in the joints. However, a couple of reports in the medical literature are available associating knuckle cracking with injury of the ligaments surrounding the joint or dislocation of the tendons ( attachments of muscles to bones) which improved with conservative treatment. A study found that after many years of cracking habitual knuckle crackers may have reduced grip strength compared with people not cracking their knuckles.

Question: Is there a difference between what happens in children / adults?
Answer: No. However habitual cracking has been associated in one 14 yo female with skin changes over the knuckles (called “knuckle pads”).

Question: What causes arthritis?
Answer: There are different kinds of arthritis with the major categories being two: The inflammatory arthritides such as the rheumatoid arthritis and the degenerative arthritis best known as osteoarthritis or “wear and tear arthritis”. The causes for either are not well known and research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms leading to these diseases. In general a genetic predisposition is highly likely for both. For the inflammatory arthritis an unknown exposure to environmental stimuli is considered possible. For the “wear and tear arthritis” instead, aging and excessive mechanical stress may play a role in accelerating the damage in the joints as it happens in the knees of genetically predisposed older obese people.

Question: Can cracking knuckles / joints lead to arthritis?
Answer: There is no evidence of such an association. In limited studies performed there was no change in occurrence of arthritis between “habitual knuckle crackers” and “non crackers”

Question: If you have arthritis, can cracking knuckles / joints make it worse?
Answer: No. However theoretically “knuckle – cracking” in patients with weak or damaged joints due to arthritis could potentially lead more easily to ligament injury or acute trauma to the joints.