We often see masters in martial arts movies clenching their fingers before starting to fight, indicating that their fists are "hard". In daily life, some people also like to crack their finger joints, especially those who work a lot or often type on keyboards or write. Their fingers will be very sore, so the natural way to relax is to crack them.
However, some elders also say: "If you crack your fingers often, you will get arthritis in the future!" So, is this harmful to the fingers? Why does it make a "click" sound when you break your fingers? Today let’s talk about whether there are any harm in cracking your fingers?
Why does it make a "click" sound when I press my fingers?
First of all, except for the fingers, all joints on the human body may make a "clicking" sound. This is what is clinically called "clicking".joint snapping”. So, what exactly is joint snapping?
Body movement is driven by many joints. The larger joints in the human body include shoulder joints, elbow joints, wrist joints, hip joints, knee joints, etc. The joint is generally composed of articular surface, joint cavity and joint capsule. scientistsgenerally believedSnapping is the sound caused by the friction between joint surfaces, between cartilage pads and joint surfaces, between tendons and joint capsules, or the explosion of air bubbles in the joints..
Of course, there are some different views. In 2005, a Canadian scientific research team scanned finger joints with dynamic magnetic resonance imaging. They found that the spaces between the finger joints are filled with synovial fluid. When the fingers are stretched, the synovial fluid will change accordingly. During this process, gas will appear in the synovial fluid and bubbles will be formed in the synovial fluid. This bubble will be there until your finger makes a "click" sound. Therefore, they believe that the sound when cracking your fingers is not caused by the bursting of bubbles, but is related to the formation of cavities in the joints.
When the joint is distracted, you can see a black cavity forming inside the joint cavity. Source: Reference 3
In addition, it was also found from experiments that bone and bone do not come into contact during joint movement. Therefore, the sound produced by cracking fingers is not caused by bone friction.
Will you get arthritis if you crack your fingers often?
So, is frequent joint snapping a disease? The answer is "no" because joint snapping is divided into physiological and pathological causes.
The characteristics of physiological joint snapping are as follows:
1． It only occurs when the joint is stretched or bent.
2. The joint must be still for a period of time before snapping occurs.
3. The sound is crisp, single, and non-repetitive.
4. There is no pain or discomfort when snapping, but a feeling of relief.
andIf the snapping does not meet any of the above points, it is pathological.. In short, if the snapping sound is not accompanied by discomfort, it is a normal physical phenomenon. However,Once you have pain, swelling and other discomfort, you should seek medical treatment promptly.
There is also some interesting evidence that there is no correlation between finger cracking and arthritis.
Ig Nobel Prize winner Donald Unger once conducted an experiment. In order to prove that the accusations of his elders were baseless, Donald began a 50-year experiment: his right hand was used as a blank control and did not break his fingers; his left hand was used as the experimental subject, and he continued to break his fingers with a similar intensity every day. From 1948 to 1998, Dr. Donald was consistent. In 1998, the results of the experiment were unexpected. There was no obvious difference in appearance, function, or X-ray images of Dr. Donald's hands, and they were all in a relatively healthy state.
Of course, the author believes that this experiment cannot fully explain the problem, whether from the perspective of sample size or variable control. But no matter what, Professor Donald’s persistent attitude towards scientific research is worth learning from.
In fact, more rigorous experiments have shown thatCracking your fingers does not cause arthritis.
In 2011, a study examined the correlation between finger cracking and hand osteoarthritis among 215 subjects. The results showed that there was no correlation between finger cracking and hand osteoarthritis at each joint. Arthritis is basically only related to family genetic history, heavy labor experience, joint trauma and other factors. Donald's point of view has thus been strongly supported.
What will happen if you break your fingers often?
Since Donald said there is no harm in cracking our fingers, can we relax our muscles every day?
"To talk about toxicity regardless of dose is just a hooliganism." In the same way, low-intensity and low-frequency finger-cracking does not cause arthritis, but frequent and excessive finger-cracking can be dangerous.
In 2015, there were reports in the literature that a 24-year-old man was admitted to the hospital due to prolonged and frequent finger-cracking. After examination, it was found that the finger extensor tendons and dorsal retinaculum were injured. When the finger joints were bent more than 50°, the finger joints would dislocate, and surgery was finally performed to recover.
When a finger is injured, especially if the finger has ligament damage that has not yet recovered, cracking the fingers will aggravate the ligament damage, which may make the fingers thicker and the finger joints unstable, which may lead to arthritis in the long run.
Therefore, there is no serious harm in cracking your fingers, butFrequent finger-breaking for a long time, especially when there is a primary disease or injury to the finger itself, may become a bad habit that harms the health of your finger joints..
In addition, when the following pathological snapping occurs in the fingers, timely medical treatment is required:
Refers to arthritis
If the snapping of your fingers is accompanied by joint pain, swelling, hardness around the joints, and finger stiffness, this may indicate that you may indeed have arthritis.
trigger finger
The medical name for “trigger finger” is stenosing tenosynovitis of the digital flexor tendons. The essence is a chronic aseptic inflammatory reaction caused by repeated friction between the flexor tendon and the fibrous sheath of the flexor tendon at the metacarpophalangeal joint.
At first, you may feel pain in the joints of your palms in the morning or after exertion. You may find it difficult to hold things. It is difficult to straighten your fingers when they are bent, resulting in a popping sound. In severe cases, the fingers may be fixed in a bent position, and the other hand must be used to help extend the fingers on the affected side. If the disease is delayed to the end, it may lead to joint contracture.
References
[1]UngerDL.Doesknucklecrackingleadtoarthritisofthefingers?[J].Arthritis&Rheumatology, 1998, 41(5):949-950.
[2] DeweberK, OlszewskiM, OrtolanoR.KnuckleCrackingandHandOsteoarthritis[J]. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2011, 24(2):169-174.
[3]Gregory N. Kawchuk, Jerome Fryer, Jacob L, et al. JaremkoReal-TimeVisualization of JointCavitation, PLOSONE, 2015
[4]ClaudiaHammond.Doescrackingyourknucklescausearthritis[J]?BBCFuture, 2012.09.18.
Planning and production
Author丨Deng Ting, attending physician at the Department of Orthopedics, Changsha Third Hospital
Review丨Ji Gang, Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Orthopedics, First Hospital of Hebei Medical University
Planning丨Wang Mengru
Editor in charge丨Wang Mengru
Reviewer丨Xu Lai Linlin