Does Cracking Your Knuckles Cause Arthritis?

Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis? Ever wonder why you need to crack your knuckles to find a sense of relief in your hand? I crack my knuckles occasionally, but it really freaks me out when people around crack them so loud to the point that I cringe at the sound. Your joints are where two of your bones meet, and they are covered with synovial fluid, a thick clear liquid. This liquid almost serves as a lubricant to your bones. You are literally pulling apart your joints when you crack your knuckles. Discovery Fit & Health states that "the connective tissue capsule that surrounds the joint is stretched. By stretching this capsule, you increase its volume." As many of you might know from science classes, volume and pressure are inverse meaning when one increases, the other decreases, and vice versa. "So as the pressure of the synovial fluid drops, gases dissolved in the fluid become less soluble, forming bubbles through a process called cavitation." The pressure in the capsule can drop very low if joints are stretched too far, causing the bubbles to burst. These bubbles bursting are the noise we hear when we crack our knuckles. The sound is a result of the "smooth cartilage and the roughness of the joint surface," according to The Library of Congress' Everyday Mysteries. It takes about 20-30 minutes for the gas to collect again in the joint fluid, and in that time you do not feel the need to crack your knuckles. Next time you crack your knuckles; observe how long it is before you feel the need to crack the same finger again.