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Within a few minutes of picking up a guitar my fingers start to stiffen up, I crack them and then all is well, been doing this for 30 odd years now and the joints of my hands are some of the few which don't cause me problems at this point in my life. I never could crack my knuckles before I started playing guitar and if I stop playing for a few weeks, I cease being able to crack my knuckles.

These articles on knuckle cracking never seem to say anything but state, but sort of maybe could be but your aunt is almost certainly wrong unless or maybe in certain exceptions. For the majority of people I think we crack our knuckles for the same reason we often stretch when we get up, it relieves a tension that needs relieving.

I do this through the day etc but in my case it feels quite clear that the two are unrelated. The stiffness is in muscles, tendons, and ligaments and feels very similar to that in other parts of my body. In the hand, performing the stretching actions causes cracking. In my ankle etc, it does not but the stretching and twisting has the same effect on the stiffness I experience.
I grew up and around 7-8 I started cracking my neck. It was like an accordian. For years it worked.

Now I get maybe one crack every few weeks but the magic is gone.

Same for my hands. I was "voracious" cracker, now my fingers get 10% of the cracks I used to get.

I still am able to crack my back, lower back by tugging on my belt and that releases a lot of uumpf. For upper back, I lay on my back, put my knuckles below the spine and go down one by one. Satisfying.

I also have a problem. Every time I stand for a long time, do some work standing up, my lower back is like dead. So I get someone to get on my sacro-illiac joint I think and a loud crack and I'm fit as a fiddle. I'm weird

I can feel some kind of tension after a short bit of using my hands, and cracking my knuckles relieves it and allows me to continue without any issues. Usually I have to crack them before falling asleep, since the feeling of tension keeps me from sleeping. Doctors never thought this was an issue and I have no joint damage (checked for other reasons).
I can relieve cramping in my feet by cracking my toes. Cracking is 100% useful in certain instances, and I have never seen evidence that it causes any harm.
The tension is in the fluid with gas compressed into it. Cracking causes a suction that pops the gas out, and now you have a bubble.

Maybe that bubble is supposed to be there.

there are 2 type of cracking. from guitar i have same, its ok, some fluid goes out because ur tendons are longer and there is some space. something like that (i am not medical person ofc).

then there is 'forced' cracking, which will be more difficult to do because its actually going to crack things that are un healthy. it destroy some soft crap between the bones.

both are not healthy but first is much less destructive and wont lead to chronic issues as fast/often as the later which much more often has that result later..

the second forced one u rly need to put some pressure or pull them hard etc its not about getting rid of that stiffness u talk about.

i did that for 15 years and my fingers/hands are fine. (stopped playin so that also went away eventually, mostly)

This is good to read about, and nice that it has and research referenced.

It's interesting to know that it's gas collapsing. And nothing to do with the bone rubbing.

And it makes you wonder what chiropractors are actually doing when they're popping your back... It's probably not doing anything to help you with your pain. And it's probably not actually adjusting anything.

I recommend reading up on the actual history of chiropractic ... I've seen articles that seem to make it clear that it was long con right from the start.

I acknowledge that this is not the only view on the history.

Chiropratic can help with pain, but not for the claimed reasons. Studies show it's as efficacious as massage therapy. I believe the same is true of cupping. Insurers increasingly cover these sorts of therapies, and primary's increasingly prescribe them, because they're cheaper than a real doctor's time, especially a specialist's, and the patient is more likely to feel better than if they were subjected to a long diagnostic gauntlet with an inconclusive end.
If a chiropractor could adjust something by pushing on your bone, imagine what tripping and falling would do.
There is a chain of clinics here called "Emergency Chiropractic" and they advertise how they take insurance and get your adverse diagnosis fast, fast, fast.

https://youtu.be/kOzwC5j7UkA?si=sHdHJzzEdn-E2a_N

And their mascot is literally a duck! I think it took me ten years to figure out the quack part here!

I have difficulty breathing sometimes but when bones were adjusted on my back, it was an instant relief, breathing like I have never experienced for a very long time that I almost forgot. Effortless and deep.
I've been to wonderful chiropractors and I've been to quacks. The good ones will discuss what's going on and individualize treatment.

The bad ones will kind of just do the same exact routine every time you go there and they'll do the same thing to everyone that goes there -- wham, bam, ty ma'am style -- get you in and out the door as quick as possible! They'll probably pop just about everything they can, which accomplishes not much of anything at all. I guess you'd call that the bruteforce method of chiropracty?

However, a single bad adjustment can painfully linger for weeks.

A good chiropractor for me was Dr. Blake Meyer at DSMCore. He would take a whole half hour and do some targeted deep tissue glute massage and nerve flossing that really helped my sciatica. Then finish up with a few minor adjustments and send me on my way, walking a little taller and straighter and with appreciably less sciatic pain. But don't expect miracles.

I tried a physical therapist near his office but she pushed me too far, too quick and made it worse. So I just stuck with Bob(RIP) and Brad on YouTube and did it at my own pace.

It's surprising that it's not common knowledge that "Chiropractic" is not medicine, nor a science, and the field is associated with vaccine misinformation and unproven supplements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractic

It's not "probably not" doing anything, it's definitely not doing anything, because chiropractic is quack pseudoscience that has been thoroughly debunked and also has a bunch of other bizarre and fantastical elements to it beyond "cracking your back"
Any muscle, back and joint pain should first be met with mild strengthening, mild weight loss and mild exercise. It's like turning your computer off and on. Mostly the problems go away. Then check for other things :) Keep remembering to relax and move, from your fingers to your wrists and shoulders. And keep trying different set-ups and equipment if you can. There is a pretty magic set-up for most people. 30+ years myself into being on a computer nearly all the time personally and professionally. Back is starting to hurt again. Time to take my own advice again :)
My lower back pain resolved automatically after I lost 15 kgs (100 to 85).
I was getting a bit stiff recently and thought it might be old age creeping up.

I started sleeping on the floor for a few nights on a doubled thick blanket for slight padding and after the third night (first two were a little rough) I sprang up like an 18 year old and felt like my posture had been improved all day long.

We spend a lot of time in bed and most beds are too soft and lead to distortions is my current theory. I'm thinking about replacing my mattress with one of those reed mats Japanese sleep on.

This is a bit weird, but I started getting mild wrist pain from computer use in college, and I credit two things with reversing it. One was rock climbing which strengthened my forearms and wrists, and the other was developing a habit of cracking my wrist joints. I stopped rock climbing many years ago but I continue to crack my wrists to this day. The habit causes me to flex and stretch my wrists every so often while I'm working and I really think that has helped prevent the development of repetitive strain injuries from mouse and keyboard use.
Some kids cracked their knuckles. It annoyed some older adults, and instead of telling them to stop they made up some bullshit reason. Classic non assertive behavior. The kids, being kids, believed them. They continued believing them into adulthood. Thus, it became a myth that was passed down.
Bruce Lee cracked his knuckles a lot, and he died in his 30s. He was in great shape too.

But I think it's mostly just escaping gases.

Edit: ^ is my way of asking why this is on HN, which I never do, cause then someone could ask the same about me.

I keep reading this same concept and I keep questioning whether they have the whole story.

I'm definitely in the group where cracking gives temporarily increased mobility, but it's more than that. A joint which is bothering me will most likely feel better if cracked and this can be the difference between very painful to walk, then my knee cracked, instantly the pain was gone.

And usually, a joint which is actively being used will not crack--but if my knees are complaining about a downhill stretch they will feel a lot better if I can crack them.

Also, I can sometimes feel a difference in how a joint moves. It just feels smoother when cracked. I don't understand it but I've wondered if it was somehow tiny bubbles (think cavitation) that don't form if the gas was removed by a crack.

I'm in my 60's, and I crack my knuckles dozens if not hundreds of times a day. I started very young, and I do every joint on both hands, every finger joint all the way up to the wrist. This is my hands while I deep think, and I think a lot. I'll do one hand, then the other, and go back to the first hand and repeat.

Due to this habit, I have researched the cause of the crack, and this article is absolutely nothing new whatsoever. The same information I've been reading for 50 years, since I was first "ordered" to stop.

For the record: zero issues. Zero ramifications beyond "stop that!" verbalized endlessly through out my life.

"No."

So, I injured my left index finger to the point of tendon interruption. It was approx 2018. I was fortunate enough to have surgery that repaired it to near 100% extension.

So, I clearly have no synovial fluid at that joint. The tendons were in it, and so by necessity it was also violated.

I just popped that knuckles, and it sounds exactly like the others. Anyone have any ideas?

What is it with all those articles that insist I've been doing something, or that I think something is true, or whatever? No, I shouldn't stop cracking my knuckles. I don't crack my knuckles. Stop assuming all those stupid things about me, articles.
So, I can crack the 2nd and 3rd joints of my fingers just by flexing them. My thumbs don't crack, but I can push the first joint through the range of motion until it locks and pushes the knuckle out the palm side. I can also push my shoulders out of their sockets, getting about another 2 inches of reach. Are my fingers and shoulders just strangely double jointed or is this something different?
In 7th grade there was this dude who would ... wait for it... crack his back during class.

Everyone would hear it.

The people behind him would see someone turn 180 degrees. Twice. Then he'd go back to listening like nothing happened.

Not in my house. It's annoying.
Highly agree with the article. If you don't have neck issues, don't pop that shit. Especially by twisting. Pulling sideways left or right, you're probably fine. Palm to chin and the other hand twisting the neck? Risky!
My knuckles no longer crack when I'm in ketosis. I assume it's inflammation related but I've never heard anyone else mention this though.
Donald L. Unger got an Ig-nobel prize for cracking the knuckles on only one hand for 60 years. n=1 but evidence over a very long time
How often can this cracking be done at a time? Does the gas escape? Does it need time to form? And why can some people do it and others not?
Another question, has anyone noticed cracking knuckles being contagious like yarning? I often crack my knuckles and quite often see others noticing and doing it themselves.
Cracking one's knuckles has been a thing that men do, that is: only a minority of women would be engaging in this, but men would pick it up in groups and it would become a custom. And of course, boys at a younger age would emulate the elder men, and so you had boys cracking their knuckles, and doing it at home, in front of their sisters and their mothers, and doing it in school in front of their teachers. And it is a blue-collar activity; something considered uncouth for the genteel knowledge-worker to do, except if you're acting in solidarity with the manual laborer, and you crack your knuckles as you sit down at the keyboard to type.

So the cracking of knuckles annoys people who don't do it, and it annoys women, and it annoys people in authority over young boys. So you want them to stop, and you want to regulate men's bodies and control what we do with our bodies. But you cannot tell us all the time "because I said so" or God forbid, "because it annoys me", because that can eventually achieve the opposite result.

So the medical myth of developing arthrosis and hurting your bones and damaging your joints, those were "old wives' tales" and "white lies" that were told in order to scare boys into stopping the activity. And perhaps even to scare husbands and employees into stopping. They tell men to stop spitting on the floor, to stop picking their nails with a pocket knife, and usually a medical excuse arises, because this is a higher authority that will terminate any individual choice or discretion in the way we treat our bodies.

What about wrists, knees, etc? My joints all “pop” easily
Should the title be “knuckle cracking is mostly benign” because journalism shouldn’t bury the lead? More at ten.

In other news, media outlets continue to struggle with readership, should they stop debasing the profession?

on this day, hn made thousands crack their knuckles
My grandpa (he was 10 when he was liberated from the Nazis by the US and remaining French troops) told me that a French general would always crack his wrists when someone didn't hurry up. Sometimes with drastic consequences. That is my memory of his story about it, whenever I hear that..
Over my dead body.
Another example of the more you look into root causes; the less we know.
Betteridge says?
TL,DR: No, unless you're doing it so hard that you're straining your joints. But don't crack your neck.
Really BBC ?