4. To stop or to not- doctors opinion

To stop or to not- doctors opinion

  • I

    Hi everyone, i went to the doctors today because i have reactivated whiplash i had about a year ago- which is characterised by painful crunching in my neck. I asked him if i should abstain from trying to crack my neck as although the crack is painful, it takes away some of the muscle pain and he said NO. He said dont worry about it , its only the sound of air bubbles releasing and sounds loud because its near your ears..
    So then i asked him is opinion on knuckle cracking, and he popped his fingers right infront of me saying, 'its just releasing air, it doesnt matter either way.'

    So there we go, ive asked 2 doctors the same question and both have given me opposit answers. The first doctor gasped and told me never to click my fingers again as i will get arthritus.. which we know isnt linked.

    I expected this differ in opinions, but i just find it so weird that there has been no conclusion on this subject.

    Anyway I'm still aiming to stop- my nearest and dearest hate the noise and i want to see how long the pressure urge will continue after stopping.

    Take care all,

    Robyn

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  • JointCracker
    Community Lead

    Robyn, thanks for consulting another doctor and posting your findings!

    I have never found any indication that knuckle cracking might pose any real harm besides a minor loss in grip strength. However, I have read various reports which suggest that neck cracking could be potentially harmful. So maybe it really depends on the joints you crack if you should stop or not? :roll:

    I will research this in more depth and post a new thread titled "The dangers of neck cracking" to collect some reports on this.

    Personally, I'm not in the least surprised that there has not been a conclusion on this subject.
    If all topics concerning joint cracking were resolved without doubt, there wouldn't be such great interest in this topic.

    I'm sick and tired about the pressure urge to crack joints. But, it's a relief to have company in all this! 🙂

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  • T

    8O Aiming to stop? How dare you! My family hates it you, but I just ignore them when they tell me to stop. I go do it somewhere else or something…

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  • C

    Yes, don't stop just because someone else wants you to. You should only stop if you really want to, or if you find it detrimental to your health (which so far seems to be inconclusive as far as joint cracking goes). I'm lucky in that my family and my boyfriend crack just as much as I do. 😄

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  • Z

    I read an article for Yahoo from somewhere else, they'd gotten it from some health site, about how a new survey says people who crack their knuckles are actually LESS likely to get arthritis. I actually found this site while trying to re-find that article for someone. Unfortunately with Yahoo, they delete their articles regularly, so I have to try to find the source article.

    So far, I've only been able to find these:

    http://www.panix.com/~iayork/knuckles.html
    http://www.orthop.washington.edu/uw/arthritis/tabID__3376/ItemID__179/PageID__335/Articles/Default.aspx
    http://www.headache.net/webcast_transcript.asp?b=healthology&f=bodyaches&c=bodyaches_arthemail&spg=FLI

    Also, as far as losing grip strength… I read that suggested too, but find it very hard to believe. I'm just 5'8", 160 lbs on a good day... but I have as much grip strength as about anyone I've ever met. I've frequently out-armwrestled people with a good foot and as much as 100+ lbs on me who were in main sports before (baseball, basketball, football). I have a nasty grip/handshake that's like a vice, and I've been cracking all joints in my body about as long as I can remember. Of course I also accompany my joint cracking with finger loosening/flexing/stretching exercises where the fingers get stretched back to loosen the tendons... but I certainly have a VERY hard time believing knuckle cracking hurts your grip inherently.

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  • JointCracker
    Community Lead

    ZPitcher, interesting new survery you mentioned. I'd really like to read it. If you find it again, please quote the relevant passages in here so it is not deleted by Yahoo again. 😞

    There is still so much uncertainty about all this it's ridiculous.

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  • B

    Neck cracking is proven to be bad - because you move it past its natural range of movement. Also when some chiropractors do crack the neck, they can cause a heck of a lot of damage. A classic case - a woman had the famous neck crack done and she then suffered 2 strokes and died.

    My dad's GP friend said it was very dangerous to crack you fingers as you are loosening the ligaments and pre paralyzing yourself.

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  • A

    I heard from SO many sources that knuckle cracking is harmless. It's just air bubbles…
    As for the neck, I worry about that - I heard it was bad, and I never used to do it until it did it on its own one day and O*G it felt so good. I really don't know what I should do. LOL

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  • B

    I believe knuckle cracking is dangerous because i and i know JC has - lost grip and this clearly shows it isn't 100% safe.

    I think all joint cracking is dangerous to be honest.

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