Cracking our fingers: a gesture that we all make throughout the day. Yet every time we ask ourselves: is it good or bad to crack our fingers? Science, always careful to study and deepen every theme, from the most trivial to the mysteries of the universe, has set to work on the question: a study has highlighted the risks of this gesture, which is as usual as it is obviously unhealthy.
Cracking your fingers: what happens?
As analysed by medical articles and also taken up by the well-known magazine Focus, there is a liquid in the joints of the fingers, which is called synovial fluid.
This fluid, produced by the synovial membrane, fills the joint cavity, nourishes the various tissues and lubricates the joint joints. When the fingers are moved, the synovial fluid produces gases that accumulate in the empty space of the joint points, forming bubbles. When the fingers are scrotummed, the pressure in the fluid is reduced, causing the air bubbles to burst, producing that typical noise.
Strange to say, then, but when the fingers are scrounged, it is as if bubbles explode.
Cracking your fingers is not something you can do continuously and this is due to the fact that you have to wait a considerable amount of time for the air bubbles to form again: about 20 minutes.
According to industry sources, however, a minimal health risk is present. In 1990, the Annals of the Rhemautic Diseas conducted a study on this very issue. In fact, it seems that this type of habit could cause swelling of the hands and drops in strength in manual grips.
It should be added that if the gesture is repeated too frequently, there may be additional side effects: among the many consequences, for example, inflammation of the joints may occur. In addition to these contraindications, there are fortunately no worse consequences, such as the feared arthrosis of the hands.
A 2011 survey also confirms this theory: X-rays of the hands of 215 people aged 50 to 89 are examined. The comparison between the joints of those who regularly cracked their fingers and those who did not showed that there was no difference between the hands of the former and those of the latter.
In conclusion, therefore, cracking the fingers is not particularly harmful to the health of the hands. Of course, it would be appropriate not to scrounge them too often, but it is still a gesture that does not cause damage, but neither does it benefit.