Is cracking your knuckles bad?

I vote not bad.

 

stop it

 

If its bad, then I should have already lost the use of my hands. Because I crack every knuckle I have at least 1000 times a day

 

Its not because all it is the gas that gets in the crevasses of your fingers and when you pop them the gas escapes.

 

The "crack" or "pop" is the release of *gas* within the joint.
Doing it probably doesn't cause arthritis, but if you hyper extend your fingers to do said cracking, you could damage the ligaments in your joints.

 

It doesn't appear to have affected me any, and I've been doing it as long as I can remember.

 

It's generally considered ok, if it doesn't hurt.

 

I don't know if it's good or bad but I used to have to crack my jaw. The more I did it, the more I had to, so one day I decided to just stop! Now I'm not sure if my body has just adapted and desensitized the cracking sensation or if it actually went away but I haven't felt the urge to crack my jaw since. So my advice is to stop doing it.

 

Been doing it for 30+ years and my hands are fine. Did it the whole time I was doing 7+ gigs a week for over a decade. Over 40 now and my hands are still fine.

 

Better than scraping them on the ground. Just saying.

 

LOL

Cracked my knuckles for decades. No problems noted. Somewhere along the way the repetitive nature of it kinda went away.

 

Osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear, rheumatoid arthritis is a response to something by the immune system. I asked an orthopedic surgeon about this and he said it's OK, as long as it doesn't hurt during/after.

 

According to the Great Oz of the Internets, you know, Wikipedia,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracking_joints

 

I think it could be bad I had this happen a while back, I was cracking my knuckles before a gig and was approached by a large biker dude who asked me to stop because that sound drives him f'ing nuts and he just wants to smash someone's [email protected]#$% face so in that sense it could have caused facial injuries so I stopped doing it at least in public.

 

I've done it for years. My playing technique is better than ever! (Probably no causal relationship other than pissing off people nearby when the crackin' happens.)

 

There are many theories ranging from: "It's harmless" to "It can lead to arthritis." I do it occasionally, sometimes my knuckles crack just from closing my hands (usually first thing in the morning). Also my neck, elbows, knees, and occasionally ankles crack.

Heh, I'm the wreck of Hesperus.

 

I do it all the time, and my hands are fine.

 

I'm another that does it all the time. I did a little digging a while back and it seems that the research so far says no - it will not cause arthritis, but there is a possibility that it COULD weaken your hand grip over time.