Do you ever hear that sound and think what is wrong with me well if you do
then you're not in the minority in fact many people have cracking bones and
knuckles but what is actually making this sound is it your bones moving
around gas inside your joints and also is it bad for you can you get arthritis
from cracking your knuckles I'm Charlie and today we're going to look at what
happens when you crack your knuckles but before we get into it why not subscribe
and press the notification bell - so what is actually making that sound when
you crack your knuckles well when it comes to your knuckles cracking that is
to do with your joints inside your joints there's something called synovial
fluid synovial is Latin for egg and that's because synovial fluid kind of
looks like a yellow egg yolk right now try and make your hand into a fist and
then expand it out you may think the reason you're able to do that and have
such dexterity is thanks to your bones but no actually it's all to do with your
joints when you change your hand from a fist to stretched out your joints are
basically stretching outwards what fills this gap is then a gas these gas bubbles
are needed to lubricate your hands so that you can actually move them and then
when you go to close your fist again these bubbles all pop so like bubble gum
popping what you're actually hearing when you clench your fist is gas bubbles
in your joints popping depending on how much synovial fluid do you have in your
joints it may take 20 minutes to one minute for this gas to return once the
gas bubbles have returned then you can pop your joints once again but the
reason you can't do it over and over again is because it does take a moment
for the chemical reaction to make these gas bubbles but you may be thinking I
don't really have pops in my joints in my hands instead it's in my knees the
second most common place people have popping noises is in their knees well
this is actually not caused by bubbles in synovial fluid popping whatsoever you
see your knee is made up of various parts there are two sections which are
your muscles then there's your bones and then the tendons the tendon allows you
to bend your knees kind of like the way you bend your fin
well the noise you hear is your bones sliding against your tender you may hear
this noise after sitting down for a long period of time also it can happen if you
stand up too quickly basically it's just your tendon popping between your bones
but now let's answer the question everyone has does cracking your knuckles
actually cause arthritis you've probably heard this ever since you were young
your parents may have said don't crack your knuckles or you'll get arthritis
well this is actually based on a study from 1990 this 1990 study did not
actually say anything about arthritis instead it stated that cracking your
knuckles a lot can relate to decreased hand functions and because of this
knuckle cracking should be discouraged people went pretty crazy with this and
assumed that if you crack your knuckles every now and then you'll definitely get
arthritis well that's why one Nobel award for medicine winner Donald L Unger
decided to disprove this for 60 years he popped his knuckles in one hand but
didn't in the other he did this to see if arthritis would develop in the hand
he was popping but after 60 years of doing this he found out that both hands
did not have any arthritis and many medical sources now agree with Donald I
have to say props to this guy for risking his entire hand over 60 years in
case he did get arthritis but luckily we didn't so I think the takeaway is that
cracking your knuckles is pretty much totally safe but now it's time for you
guys to make your voice heard vote in the poll in the top right corner do you
crack your knuckles or not personally I do if you guys want some more amazing
videos then check out my second channel they'll be a link to that on screen in a
moment but as always thanks for watching check out some more videos on screen
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