When someone stretches or bends their knuckle to crack it, they increase the space between the bones, which creates a drop in pressure in the joint. As a result of that pressure drop, the dissolved ...

Do you crack your knuckles? For decades, warnings about possible harm have caused concern about the habit — here is what the ...

I don’t remember how old I was when I first heard someone say, “Don’t crack your knuckles! It’ll give you arthritis!” But I do know that ever since then, I’ve felt a weird pang of guilt any time I do ...

An arthritis doctor explains what actually happens inside the joints when knuckles crack, separating long-standing myths from ...

Nearly all of us have experienced our joints ‘pop’ at some point in our lives. Whether it was from cracking our knuckles, getting adjusted by a chiropractor, or the inadvertent sound that sometimes ...

Hearing “snap, crackle, pop!” with no visible sign of the Rice Krispie trio can only mean one thing: snapping joints—likely knuckle cracking, to be more specific. Whether or not the sensation happens ...

I was seven years old when I first saw someone with severe rheumatoid arthritis. I had just met one of my grandmother’s cousins, whose swollen joints and gnarled fingers fascinated and terrified me. I ...

The popping sound habitual knuckle crackers make may be annoying — or even alarming — but are they actually harming themselves? The research is somewhat limited but generally concludes that ...

There are many reasons people crack or pop their knuckles. Some do it as a nervous tic, others do it because of restlessness, still others do it to relieve pressure and stiffness and then some, ...

In some households, cracking your knuckles is a declaration of war. Whether you’re in the camp that can’t stand the sound or the one that can’t see what the fuss is about, you might be surprised to ...