Does cracking your knuckles really have any effect on your health?

None.

Nope. Not a thing.

I have heard nothing as well, but I’ve also heard cracking your neck can have some detrimental effects. Has anyone heard about cracking your neck?

I was told once that it’s necessitated by a pockets of nitrogen gas forming in the joints.

@Blackberry My guess is that it’s because the neck isn’t like your knuckles – different overall structure, plus there’s that bundle of nerves running through it.

Arthritis.

My underlying problems with tissue and nerve damage and swelling means that when my neck is out of whack, I get some relief from cracking it, but it is short term and when my neck is ‘well’ I feel no need to crack it. If you feel the need to crack your neck, or if it just does it on it’s own, have it seen too. I sure wish I could afford a proper osteopath where I live.

Cracking knuckles doesn’t cause arthritis, but it is a sign of over extendible, or hypermobile joints. It just so happens that people with hypermobile joins are more susceptible to arthritis. So… it’s a chicken and egg thing… or as we like to call it ‘causality’.

Yes I know from experience. If you crack them a lot like I used to them it will start to hurt your joints even when you don’t crack them. I don’t know exactly what happens but I do know that pain means injury.

@Blackberry Yeah, I crack my neck and my neurosurgeon friend has told me as much. Basically, you’re (usually) either moving your neck faster then you should or moving it it ways you shouldn’t, and neither is good for your spine or brain. Both of these don’t apply to knuckle cracking (unless you use your head to crack them, i suppose…).

I am 67 and have been doing this since I was 15 years old.

No problems, so far.

I hope not. I’ve been popping my knuckles forever with no ill effects. Even after hearing all the ol’ wives tales it didn’t stop me from cracking. My knuckles are not big and my hands are flexible. It’s such a wonderful feeling.
@everephebe, yep! crackin’ now.;-)

From Scientific American (December 2009): Good news about knuckle cracking:

“For 50 years, the author cracked the knuckles of his left hand at least twice a day, leaving those on the right as a control. Thus, the knuckles on the left were cracked at least 36,500 times, while those on the right cracked rarely and spontaneously.”

Finally, after five decades, Unger analyzed his data set: “There was no arthritis in either hand, and no apparent differences between the two hands.” He concluded that “there is no apparent relationship between knuckle cracking and the subsequent development of arthritis of the fingers.”