About 50 years ago, someone proposed a theory for why we can CRACK our knuckles. They believed it was because tiny bubbles form when we move our joints, so when you pop a bunch of them at once, they make a sound.
And most scientists were like, “Yeah, that makes sense, we’ll go with that.”
So last fall, a group of researchers at Stanford University in California FINALLY decided to do a study to see if that’s the reason.
And . . . it is. Their results were released yesterday, and the study showed that when we crack our knuckles, we’re popping a bunch of microscopic bubbles that have built up in there.
And on the bright side, that means there’s now scientific proof that cracking your knuckles almost definitely WON’T increase your risk of developing arthritis. So crack away.
(Nature)
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