I have one major pet peeve, people cracking their knuckles. I’m not sure why it grosses me out so much, but I cringe whenever someone does it. If you crack your knuckles around me, my response, besides my disgusted face, will always be “did you know that cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis?” I decided to do some research to see if there was any merit behind the line I  always say.

Cracking your knuckles is basically popping bubbles of fluid in your joints. An article from BBC shows some studies that have been done on the relationship between knuckle cracking and arthritis. One study talks about a doctor from California who, for 60 years, cracked only the knuckles in his left hand. After 60 years went by, he concluded that he had no signs of arthritis in either hand. The article also goes on to talk about another study that was done with 300 people over age 45. Of the people studied, the ones who admitted that they cracked their knuckles had a less strong grip in their hands, and 84% showed signs of swelling. Although they had things wrong with their hands, none of them had arthritis. Lastly, the article talks about a third study that was done with whether the frequency of cracking knuckles has anything to do with arthritis. The study concluded that people who crack their knuckles every 15 minutes show no difference in their hands than people who crack them once a day. Overall the article concluded that no, cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis.

Another article on arthritis also concluded that knuckle cracking and arthritis have no connection. It talks about how although it is not linked to arthritis, it is linked to soft tissue damage and damage to ligaments surrounding the joints. Yes, it may not give you arthritis, but it will damage your hands.

Everyone’s favorite health question answering website web MD also concludes that there is no relationship between knuckle cracking and arthritis, but there are other risks of cracking your knuckles. Web MD says that knuckle cracking causes no harm to hands, but often times in an attempt to crack their knuckles, people crack their joints. Joint cracking is very bad for your hands. It could cause tendons to snap over the tissue, loosen cartilage, and cause injury to ligaments.

Overall, I could not find anything supporting that knuckle cracking causes arthritis. I will still tell people not to do it, mostly because it annoys me, but also because it seems like most studies conclude that it does cause some type of harm to your hands.