In this world today there is not a single person who is perfect. Every one of us has imperfections and many of those imperfections come in the form of bad habits. Several bad habits can annoy people to death. There is one bad habit that I have in particular. I’m not sure if it gets on anybody’s nerves because nobody has told me that it does but I often pop my knuckles. I don’t have any idea why I do it. Like most habits I do it without even thinking about it. There are probably days when I pop my knuckles six or seven times throughout the day but if someone asked me at the end of the day how many times I did I’d probably say zero because I didn’t even realize it. Being the curious person that I am, a few days ago when I popped my knuckles something occurred to me. I don’t have any idea why my knuckles pop. What causes them to pop like that? Is it a bad thing to pop my knuckles?
I’m sure you all know that knuckles are joints, which means that two separate bones meet at the knuckles. The bones in our joints are connected by ligaments and tissues and are surrounded by synovial fluid. Synovial fluid is a thick stringy fluid with a consistency much like an egg. The purpose of the synovial fluid is to reduce friction, lubricate, and cushion cartilage when you move.
When someone bends or stretches their finger to pop their knuckle it causes the two bones to separate. When the two bones separate it causes the tissue around the joint to stretch. The volume of the tissue then goes up which causes the pressure in the synovial fluids to go down. When the pressure of the synovial fluid decreases bubbles are created. If the joint is pulled or bent far enough the bubble of synovial fluid bursts and that causes the popping noise in your knuckles.
Can popping your knuckles be dangerous? There has only been one study to test whether popping knuckles can be dangerous. You would think if popping your knuckles could lead to anything it would be arthritis but the study showed that there was no correlation between popping your knuckles and arthritis. Many habitual knuckle poppers did show a sign of soft tissue damage that lessened the strength of their grip though.
There is no proof that habitual knuckle popping is dangerous though but it might be best not to do it just to be sure. An occasional pop of the knuckles or other joints isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can actually be a good thing. When a joint pops the muscles around it are relaxed. This is why someone will often fold their hands together and bend them back in order to pop all their fingers right before they use them or why people always feel better after going to the chiropractor and having their back popped. All joints work the same way as the knuckles so any time you feel a pop in a joint you probably feel relaxed afterwards.
