Cracking your knuckles

[superhornet59]

alot of people are unsure of what causes you to crack you knuckles. the anwser is the nitrogen gas between in your joins escaping (same reason raw carrots crack when you bite, except thats from wate), if you go down deep, eventualy presssurized Nitrogen will build up, then what on accent? you knuckles wont expload or anything but there will still be lots. i doubt youll blow up your kuckles or something, but do you feel like you realy need to crack your knuckles as you go up? (never gone very deep scuba). on a side note if you had all this nitrgwn in your body, which is the main ingredient in air, would cracking all your joints after a dive (or anytime) cause the gas in your veins to stop your heart? or say in a... 100 foot dive you go up and crack your knuckles (or any more joints) at like 50 ft, coult it cause barotrauma on the way up from all that extra gas?

just curious -Matt

 

[DeepThought]

rofl
Never heard about it and never had the need to crack knuckles after a 30m scuba dive. I would think that if one has nitrogen building up in his joints he got bent.

 

[superhornet59]

no not at all, nitrogen buildup is what causes knuckles to crack.

 

[homunculus]

Interesting. Would you happen to have any references you could cite on the topic.
I've never had such symptoms but would be eager to learn more about this.

 

[Amphibious]

stopped logging my dives around the 500hr mark. so would guess I'm around 1500 these days.....

never had my knuckles explode.......

where do you get these questions?

The "crack" comes because of a change in the synovial fluid, the lubricant that bathes the joints. When finger bones are suddenly stretched apart, the space between the joints widens, and an air bubble forms in the synovial fluid. The bubble quickly bursts and makes a sharp sound.

http://www.providence.org/Oregon/He.../Arthritis/AskAnExpert_Arthritis_knuckles.htm

taken from Scuba-Doc:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache...ckles+and+barotrauma&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1

 

[crusty]

On the Cracking Topic

When i doing pool training i Do a static on the bottom them swim ( with fins)
On the first kick of my right leg my ankle crackes, it goes off like a gun i can hear it echoeing around the pool then i get another one on the second kick but it not as loud

I thought it was because im getting old and warn out, so all i need is a good deep dive to get nitrogen back into circulation and out of my system

I wish it was that easy, because Turning 40 sucks


Rusty

 

[Dave S]

Disclamer: I'm certainly not a doctor or hyperbaric physician, nor a professional in any related field.

alot of people are unsure of what causes you to crack you knuckles. the anwser is the nitrogen gas between in your joins escaping (same reason raw carrots crack when you bite, except thats from wate), if you go down deep, eventualy presssurized Nitrogen will build up, then what on accent? you knuckles wont expload or anything but there will still be lots. i doubt youll blow up your kuckles or something, but do you feel like you realy need to crack your knuckles as you go up? (never gone very deep scuba).

Ok... Firstly, have a read of [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracking_knuckles"]this article[/ame].

When scuba diving, dissolved Nitrogen does build up in the body, but I'd be willing to bet big bucks that an increased amount of dissolved Nitrogen in the synovial fluid would not cause a desire to crack one's knuckles. There may not even be a significant increase in dissolved gas in the synovial fluid when scuba diving.

If you do a deep or long dive and absorb a lot of extra gas, you'll presumably be doing decompression stops on the way up, to let the gas out slowly and avoid Decompression Illness.

on a side note if you had all this nitrgwn in your body, which is the main ingredient in air, would cracking all your joints after a dive (or anytime) cause the gas in your veins to stop your heart? or say in a... 100 foot dive you go up and crack your knuckles (or any more joints) at like 50 ft, coult it cause barotrauma on the way up from all that extra gas?

No. Cracking you knuckles doesn't release gas into your veins. And even if it did, I don't think gas bubbles in your veins could possibly stop your heart (but gas bubbles in the brain are an entirely different matter). If gas is released during the cracking of a join, I'm fairly sure it would remain trapped in that joint until it redisolved.

 

[Mr. X]

Was surprised to hear about the bubble & nitrogen. I find I am much more inclined to crack knuckles/neck/jaw/back/... when cold and/or experiencing muscle tightness (e.g. in back/shoulders/legs) & less inclined when warm & well stretched.

 

[aesop]

I was gonna say...that's bs, about the nitrogen. I asked my doctor what caused that and he said the only have theories, they don't really know for sure.

makes for an interesting topic though.