Xiao Mei’s work is inseparable from the typing, a lot of knuckle movement, so that she has developed the habit of always love to break fingers, but recently found that her joints are getting stiff, doubt that they are not arthritis ah? It seems that few people believe that knuckle-wrestling can damage joints and eventually lead to arthritis. However, the long-term effects of this action on joint health are controversial, and there is no evidence linking it to the development of arthritis. Why Do Finger Joints Make a Rattling Sound To explain the sound that finger joints make, it’s important to first describe the structure of the finger joints. At the joint, the joint capsule and the articular surface form a closed cavity in which a small amount of fluid – synovial fluid – exists, which provides lubrication, cushioning, and a medium for the metabolism of articular cartilage. It is now widely believed that the sound made by breaking a finger is related to the gas dissolved in the synovial fluid. In fact, finger-breaking is the process of making the joint space larger by hyperextending, hyperflexing, or pulling on the joint. Since the joint capsule is a nearly airtight space, this results in a drop in pressure within the joint capsule. When the pressure in the joint capsule drops to a certain level, gases dissolved in the synovial fluid precipitate out and form tiny bubbles, which in turn fuse with each other to form a larger bubble. Scientists have come up with a number of different hypotheses about the exact mechanism of the sound, with some suggesting that the sound is related to the bursting of the bubbles, and others suggesting that it is the process of bubble formation that is the key, and that the principle of this remains to be investigated further. Is joint popping related to disease? There are two types of joint popping: physiologic and pathologic, with physiologic popping accounting for the majority. Typical physiological joint popping performance has two kinds: one is a period of inactivity joints, sudden activity, you can hear a crisp “click”, the reason for this phenomenon and the same principle of finger folding, are the joint cavity bubble formation. Another kind of activity can sometimes be heard when a short “pop” sound, the sound is dull, the duration is not long, the emergence of time is not certain, no pain and other discomforts, mostly in the large joints, this sound is generally associated with the activities of the cartilage surface of the protruding parts. The above situations usually do not need to worry, however, there are also some joint popping sound related to trauma, joint capsule laxity, cartilage peeling and other abnormal factors. It is important to be aware of recurring joint popping, especially if it is accompanied by pain and joint “catching”. Can breaking my knuckles cause arthritis? There are two main types of arthritis, one related to abnormalities in the immune system and the other caused by degenerative wear and tear of the joints. “Rheumatoid arthritis is the former, an autoimmune disease. In degenerative osteoarthritis, repetitive damage to cartilage is thought to contribute to the development of the disease. So, will breaking the finger joints aggravate the wear and tear of articular cartilage and cause arthritis? At present, the academic community generally believes that there is a lack of evidence to support the claim that “arm-wrestling causes arthritis”. In order to verify whether knuckle-wrestling will lead to arthritis, Donald Unger (Donald Unger) with his own hands for 60 years of “controlled experiments”: every day, his left hand knuckle-wrestling, and never break the joints of the right hand. In the end, his right and left hands were free of arthritis, and there was no difference in the appearance of the two hands. Unger published his findings in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, for which he won the hilarious Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009. Are there any other dangers of finger-wrestling? Some people break their fingers regularly simply because it’s a habit, while others do it because it’s comforting; some people break the habit after they start to feel uncomfortable breaking their fingers, and others break the habit after they start to break their fingers without making a sound. However, if too much force is exerted, the action of breaking the knuckles does have the potential to cause acute injury to the ligaments around the joints, and may also lead to tendon misalignment.