Cracking your knuckles – to some people – it’s like dragging fingers down a blackboard, but others love doing it, as well as sometimes revelling in the clear discomfort that it gives others.
Well, here’s what actually happens when you do it, if you want to learn about the science.
If you are someone who cracks their knuckles, then you’ll no doubt have heard a load of stuff about how you shouldn’t do it because it’s damaging to your hands, or can give you arthritis, or some other strange reason.
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The actual truth is quite different, and those people are either misinformed or just telling you that because they themselves don’t like the sound of it.
To be fair, it can be quite annoying.
Speaking to Piedmont Healthcare, rheumatologist Mala Kaul M.D. explained how it actually works.
She said: There’s a common misconception that if you crack your knuckles, you’re going to develop arthritis.
“But the truth is, you won’t.”
But that begs the question, if it isn’t damaging you at all, what – excuse the completely intentional pun – is the craic with cracking knuckles?
Dr Kaul continued: “When you crack your knuckles, you’re basically releasing air out of the joints.”
So - as you can also learn in that video from Dr Farhan at @madmedicine above - between your finger joints there is a fluid that acts as a cushion called synovial fluid.
That allows for your fingers to move around in a number of ways without causing you any pain.
Air bubbles naturally form in that fluid, and the cracking of your knuckles is simply the release of those air bubbles.
It isn’t likely to cause you any trouble, but if you do have any pain then you’re better off stop doing it, obviously.
Also, as we’ve already covered, some people really don’t like it, and it’s pretty annoying.
So, maybe you should consider how much you do it anyway, regardless of the fact that it won’t hurt you in the long run.
There are a few other things that could happen to you from cracking your knuckles, though.
According to Harvard Medical School, there have been occasional reports of people dislocating their fingers after cracking a bit too hard.
What’s more, you could also do some damage to your ligaments, which are the bits of tissue that keep your bones together at the joint.
You’d have to be seriously cracking those knuckles to do any of this, but it still remains a possibility so it’s completely up to you whether you want to keep doing it.
If you’re comfortable with those risks, then crack away.
You’re unlikely to really cause yourself any harm.
Tom Wood