h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Maybe not as rude as picking your nose or biting your nails, but cracking your knuckles is a serious problem. It can lead to arthritis, and that's bad.

At one time, I was cracking every knuckle I had, my elbow, shoulder, knee and toes. About every joint I could find... And I have no idea how I stopped. One day, I just forgot that I was doing it, and as far as I can figure, that's around when I stopped. So just don't think about it (Though telling a person not to think something is the surest way to make them think it)

Ooh! I hate it when people do that! Sometimes I make joints crack, either accidentally or because it feels out of place and feels that it needs to crack, but people who just sit there cracking their knuckles makes me cringe! It's horrible!

I'm used to it, but thankfully, I've stopped

Bxllxcks Bxllxcks Bxllxcks BXLLXCKS!

Cracking joints is *not* harmful. Cracking joints is just popping bubbles in the fluid in your joints. It doesn't do any harm or good:

""Cracking knuckles and other joints will cause arthritis."
There is no evidence that cracking joints will impair joint development or lead to arthritis."

www.childrenshospitalla.org/pedmyths.html

Evidence or not, my grandmother cracked her knuckles and still does and has fierce arthritis.

i dont really care if it gives you arthritis or not, but there's something creepy to the sound of popping knuckles. i kinda hear it in the pit of my stomach, like nails on a chalkboard, and the way it....popping sounds aren't so bad when it's a single one, but knuckles make a few pops, it just sounds so gross to me. but that's just my say.

i dont understand why people crack their knuckles anyway....stressed you say?
-hippo

Habit. A drowning need. I don't know why people start in the first place though...

*cracks knuckles*

Ohhh yeah...

why do you think people want to stop then, if ti feels *ahem* "good"?????
-hippo

It's like smoking. It's an urge. It feels good to do it, but if you don't have the urge (BY quitting) it doesn't feel good

Cracking your joints is one of the worst noises in my opinion, it really really grates. However, it is necessary at times - at least for me. I get awful pains in my joints, and as soon as they 'crack' the pain goes. Oh and yes, it is a myth that cracking your joints causes arthritis. But its an excellent reason to give people to make them stop making that incessant noise!

first someone introduced to to cracking my toes...then i found my knuckles.

Then I gradually found more and more things to crack.

My knees - arrgh bad move, don't have brilliant knees anymore.
My neck!
Elbows

And finally my back, which is the only one I still crack. Whenever I get a stiff or aching back, this is like the only way to alleviate the pain. I can crack it standing, sitting down, laying down, wherever. I just twist my upper body and boom, one hell of a loud noise it causes!
Or if I'm sitting on a chair with a backrest, I lean back far enough and crack.

I don't think it's rather good for you, but I can't stop. Cracking my knuckles, toes etc were easy to stop because they were really just habit, or the joy of hearing a crack. But my back actuallly hurts so I have feel I have to crack it :/

I can't crack my back. It hurts too much!

Apart from elbows, and ankles, if it's a joint I'll crack it. Drives my better half up the wall.

Sprout

Personally I don't really care about the noise cracking joints causes. It doesn't creep me out. And I do it, too, if it feels as the joints are blocked or something.

Which does creep me out is when people make their neck crack. It sounds as if it's breaking!

Methos

For some obscure reason I sometimes find that if I'm typing a lot my fingers become very stiff, and cracking my knuckles actually helps to alleviate the feeling and free up my joints...

Having said that, I'll agree with the neck cracking bit being extremely creepy to see and listen too

A bit paranoid are we?

Paranoid? Why? I mean, your back gets stiff, too, when you sit in front of your computer too long. Why not your fingers. Okay, you could argue that they actually get a lot of action - Oops, I just paused to crack my fingers. Absolutely unconsciously. Weird.

Stopping now.

Methos

>>Which does creep me out is when people make their neck crack. It sounds as if it's breaking!

It really sounds as if it's snapping. My former martial arts trainer did it on purpose to loosen up. And after he realized how creepy I found it, he did it just to see me go .

And the neck of my mother sometimes just cracks.

Methos