Cracking the Knuckles and Arthritis

Yea and you know that time of work when all eyes are on the clock and its still 4:45pm and it seems like its taking  forever to get to 5pm, and out of boredom regardless of productivity, there I am chatting with a colleague and the african girl in me comes out and I start cracking my knuckles, you cant hide your identity you know lol! Not like I m trying to hide mine, but my colleague goes Stop Elly! your gonna give yourself arthritis and we begin to argue because I was not convinced that was a cause of arthritis, however it lingered in my heart and I had to research and heres what I found out, but I must say ever since then, my knuckles do hurt a bit though, is it psychology, the weather or old age? looooooool! Do read on!

How the Joint Works

A joint is formed where the ends of two bones come together. The ends of the two bones are covered by articular cartilage. The cartilage is surrounded by what is called the joint capsule. Inside the joint capsule, there is synovial fluid which serves as a lubricant for the joint and also as a source of nutrients for the cells that maintain the joint cartilage.
Synovial fluid contains dissolved gases -- oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. When you crack your knuckles or when pressure is applied to a joint, the pressure inside the joint capsule expands but the expansion is limited by how much synovial fluid is contained in the joint. Synovial fluid cannot expand unless pressure inside the joint capsule drops and the dissolved gases can escape out of the fluid. The cracking sound comes from the gases rapidly being released from the fluid.

Study Conclusions

There have been a few studies over the years that considered whether or not cracking knuckles caused arthritis. One study found that there was no increase of hand arthritis among knuckle crackers, however, knuckle cracking was related to hand swelling and lower grip strength.
Another study indicated that while knuckle cracking was not associated with arthritis, it was associated with damage to ligaments that surround the joint and dislocation of tendons. While cracking your knuckles is not linked to causing arthritis, there may be a connection to soft tissue injuries.