Over the years I developed the terrible habit of cracking almost anything that is capable of being cracked. I was always told that cracking my joints was bad for me and that I need to break myself of that habit. But when I started to question why it was actually bad, I was told the complete opposite from other sources, that cracking is not harmful whatsoever.
Why do people crack their joints in the first place? Most people would say that it is to relieve pain but in my case it is just out of habit. When joints are “cracked” the gas in the joint exits and that is what makes the sound that we hear. But is this cracking bad for us, especially when cracking our necks? Chiropractors would claim that it is safe but I would assume that there is definitely bias with their decision. Surgeons are on the other side of the fence and would say that cracking your neck is not safe. According to an article in The Huffington Post, if a professional is doing the cracking, you are at a low risk. There are still a few rare side effects that include stroke brought on by a tear to the lining of the vertebral artery, which supplies blood to the brain. Researcher have found a correlation between the cracking of the neck and increased risk for stroke. But the extent of this remains undetermined. The correlation led to the hypothesis which led a study. The study included 582 subjects that were admitted into the hospital with vertebrobasilar stroke over five years. The results found a strong correlation between chiropractic care received within the previous week and having a stroke among the people under the age of 45. Although a correlation was found in this study, it does not mean that neck cracking causes a stroke. The neck cracking could be a soft end point in this study and the results could just be a false positive. In this study, because it was observational, we must consider confounding variable, and we cannot rule out chance. I think more studies would have to be done or this to make a better conclusion based off of more data. This study was published therefore it does not suffer the file drawer problem.
So should we crack our necks? There is statistical evidence that would advise against it but are these numbers statistically significant to mean anything to the average member of society? That’s for you to decide! I plan on trying to break myself of this bad habit.
References:
http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3680
Very interesting and a little concerning, I crack my bones all the time, including my neck. I would love to see this study repeated to see if they get similar results. I also wonder if cracking your back has equally or similar dangerous responses. Both your neck and your back have connections to your spine – which you want to take care not to damage. I’d love to see a follow up post about cracking your back!
I personally love to crack my neck and back, but now after reading this post, I have regrets about cracking them so often! But I have a few questions, why is it that cracking necks can so easily cause a stroke? Is tearing the vertebral artery what causes strokes? Do you have to turn your neck a certain way to cause this artery to tear? Here is some more information about the vertebral artery and strokes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertebral_artery_dissection