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You are here: Home / Science / What Happens When You Crack Your Knuckles, What Causes the Sound, and Does It Cause Arthritis?

What Happens When You Crack Your Knuckles, What Causes the Sound, and Does It Cause Arthritis?

July 27, 2020 by Karen Hill

The bones and the series of ligaments that form the knuckles and many other joints have a little elasticity.

In cracking a joint, what basically happens is that you separate the two bones by pulling or bending. This abruptly creates a space between the bones, a vacuum.

Then the fluids normally present in the surrounding tissues rush into that space with the sound of a tiny explosion.

The fluid is gradually reabsorbed, so there is a time lag before that joint can be cracked again.

Knuckle cracking is apparently innocuous except for being obnoxious.

The joint that is usually cracked, the one between the hand and the finger, is typically spared from wear-and-tear arthritis, or osteoarthritis.

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Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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