Since our schooldays, we’ve been told that purposefully cracking your knuckles will lead to arthritis later in life and that we shouldn’t be doing it often or, at best, at-all.
However, while it is essential to protect our bone health, according to Harvard Medical School, this satisfying habit isn’t likely to be contributing to our chances of developing arthritis. There is, however, another health concern connected to the habit.
Is cracking your knuckles harmful for your health?
In short: yes, but not in the way that we’ve been told until now. According to Harvard Medical School, several studies that compared rates of hand arthritis among those who habitually cracked their knuckles in comparison to those that didn’t, concluded that there is no correlation between the two:
“The “pop” of a cracked knuckle is caused by bubbles bursting in the synovial fluid — the fluid that helps lubricate joints. The bubbles pop when you pull the bones apart, either by stretching the fingers or bending them backward, creating negative pressure.”
They go on to reference a study from way back in 1990 that compares the sudden, vibratory energy produced when we crack our knuckles to “the forces responsible for the destruction of hydraulic blades and skip propellers.”
While this isn’t a sensation that will lead to arthritis, it is a habit you should look to curb as habitually cracking your knuckles could lead to reduced grip strength and the medical school urges that there have been at least two published reports of injuries suffered while people were trying to crack their knuckles.
How cracking knuckles impacts grip strength
This is backed by Australian science communicator Karl Kruszelnicki, also known as “Dr Karl” who said on his TikTok account, habitual knuckle crackers were found to have slightly swollen joints and their grip strength was about one quarter of what it should have been.
Yikes. Best stick to a healthier habit, after all.