It’s very common that when a person starts cracking their knuckles, someone comes along and points out that doing so is bad for the bones, as it can accelerate the onset of arthritis. But there are several myths behind this common phrase of a mother or grandfather, as revealed by a doctor who cracked his knuckles for years to see the effect.
a doctor Allergist Donald L. Unger grew tired of hearing these warnings during his childhood, and that’s why he chose to turn his body into a long-term laboratory. To do this, Unger religiously cracked his left finger at least twice a day for decades, leaving his right hand completely intact as a control.
Once it did, it was in 1998, after 50 years of experimentation, when he published a letter to the editor in the magazine. Arthritis and rheumatism. Here his conclusion was strong, since, after comparing both hands, there was no sign of arthritis in either of them and no radiographic difference between them.
Big studios. In this case, which can be so ridiculous, there are other large studies that want to understand whether such a common practice can be so harmful to our health. For example, in 1975, a study analyzed geriatric patients and found no correlation between finger cracking habits and degenerative changes in the joints.
But the one with the most support behind it is much more recent than 2011. A case-control study of 215 people (ages 50 to 89) using X-rays was conducted this year, and the results nailed the myth’s coffin. What was found was that the prevalence of osteoarthritis was 18.1% in those who cracked their knees and 21.5% in those who did not, so there was no statistical association, not even taking into account accumulated years of practice.
Ultrasound. A 2017 study used ultrasound and “blind” testers (who didn’t know which patients had a cracking habit and which didn’t) on 400 joints. In the results here they found no difference in function, ligament laxity or grip strength, and in fact, they noted that range of motion increased slightly after the crunch.
The word ‘crack’ It may seem like the bones are rubbing together, but this is not the case, because the fluid is what is responsible for the sound. To demonstrate this, the scientists introduced volunteers to an MRI machine that recorded what was happening in the soft tissue in real time. Here they discovered that the sound corresponds to a phenomenon called tribonucleation.
This process occurs when the joint surfaces separate as the pressure of the synovial fluid around them decreases, resulting in the sudden formation of a gas cavity. Thus, the sound is produced when the bubble falls, not when it bursts.
Picture | Taufiq Barbuiya
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