Good feelings lead to addiction
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One more to add in favor of the addiction theory:
David Clarke started a thread worrying about his frequent cracking:
The following is for my own interest. I frequently "crack" my knuckles,
knees, ankles, elbows, etc. The "school-yard" explanation that I've
heard is that I'm releasing nitrogen gas from the blood. Any truth to
that? Does anyone know the mechanism behind this?Incidently, I find that if I don't "crack" my knees frequently (4 or more
times per hour), then I find flexion/extension to be a very odd
sensation. Not painful, just a little stiff.Can I develop arthritus year from now because I continue to do this to my
body? I've heard both yes and no.Any insight would be appreciated.
He was referred to this paper:
1. Brodeur R.
The audible release associated with joint manipulation.
Jmpt (Journal of Manipulative & Physiological Therapeutics).
18(3):155-64, 1995 Mar-Apr. (40 ref)Partap S. Khalsa had this to say:
The phenomenon you describe has been of considerable interest to the chiropractic, osteopathic, and physical medicine professions. In
particular, what is the cause of the "cracking" sound that commonly is
produced during spinal manipulations/adjustments. Please see the
following discussion written by R. Brodeur of the Dept. of Biomechanics,
Michican State Univ.and quoted the referred paper:
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to review the literature on the audible release associated with manipulation.
DATA SOURCES: Bibliographic information in pertinent articles and papers
located in the MEDLINE database containing thekeywords: joint, joints, cartilage, crack, cracking, cavitation,
crepitus and noise.STUDY SELECTION: All articles relevant to the objectives were selected.
DATA EXTRACTION: All available data was used.
DATA SYNTHESIS: The audible release is caused by a cavitation process
whereby a sudden decrease in intracapsular pressure causes dissolved
gasses in the synovial fluid to be released into the joint cavity. Once
a joint undergoes cavitation, the force-displacement curve changes and
the range of motion of the joint increases. The gasses released from the
synovial fluid make up about 15% of the joint volume and consist of
approximately 80% carbon dioxide. Habitual joint cracking does not
correlate with arthritic changes, but does correlate with loss of grip
strength and soft-tissue swelling. During the "crack" associated with a
joint manipulation, there is a sudden joint distraction that occurs in
less time than that required to complete the stretch reflexes of
periarticular muscles. Theories on the cavitation mechanism were
reviewed and new information on the cavitation process is introduced. In
this paper, it is proposed that the cavitation process is generated by
an elastic recoil of the synovial capsule as it "snaps back" from the
capsule/synovial fluid interface.CONCLUSIONS: Because the sudden joint distraction during a manipulation
occurs in a shorter time period than that required to complete the
stretch reflexes of the periarticular muscles, there is likely to be a
high impulse acting on the ligaments and muscles associated with the
joint. This is an important conclusion, because others have proposed
that reflex actions from high threshold periarticular receptors are
associated with the many beneficial results of manipulation. This
suggests that the cavitation process
provides a simple means for initiating the reflex actions and that
without the cavitation process, it would be difficult to generate the
forces in the appropriate tissue without causing muscular damage.
[References: 40]David followed this up with a summary. He found two more interesting papers:
[2] Castellanos J., Axelrod D., "Effect of habitual knuckle cracking on
hand function". Ann Rheum Dis 1990; 49:308-309.[3] Unsworth, Dowson, & Wright, 1971, "Cracking Joints: A Bioengineering
Study of Cavitation in the Metacarpophalangeal Joint," Ann. Rheum.
Dis., 30:348-358.His conclusion is in favor of the addiction theory:
One response stated that the cracking of a joint can cause short term
relief, but that after a short while (hours, days, weeks), the previous
symptoms reappear. This can lead to an "addiction" of joint cracking and
is probably the reason why I crack my knees and fingers so much.Once again it becomes obvious that we should look for and hunt scientific papers on this topic. The herin quoted papers are almost 10 years old so we can expect new results in new papers.
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It is not hrad to understand that a nice feeling leads to addiction.
The brain if it keeps getting a good feeling will then make you go back to that place to get the same feeling. It has been scientifically proven. So, if you joint crack, you will want to joint crack to get that same feeling of satisfaction.
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yup i think i saw in antoher thread that it releases endorphins too which is good i guess…
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that is the good feeling.
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cool, i guess it's easier than exercise to click your toe! (exercise releases endorphins too)
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yeh i know - thats why some people do it a lot.
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i should savour it when it happens then i guess, i usually get a bit worked up when they click.. cool
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Yes but it won't last long.
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Yes, it relaxes the muscle and stimulates the nerve endings. :lol:
then its a good thing!
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Being burnt stimulates nerve endings.
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sun burn?
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No as in like putting your hand on a hot radiator etc
