Crack Addict

For those of you who have been adjusted before, you are very familiar with the “crack” of relief that often comes from an adjustment. To some this sound brings feelings of relaxation and pain relief, to others the sound causes them to cringe. So what is this crack noise? And how does it help? Is it dangerous to do on my own?

Let’s start with the basics. The noise you hear is called a cavitation. It occurs when there is a negative pressure on the fluid in your joint, which allows the nitrogen gas to expand to bubbles. It’s very similar to releasing the pressure on a bottle of Pepsi and watching the carbon dioxide bubbles appear and rise to the surface.  The negative pressure comes from moving your joint to its end range of motion, or stretching it as far as it will go before any damage is done.  This pop you hear has nothing to do with bones crunching, nor will it lead to arthritis in your knuckles (sorry moms).  After about 15 minutes the nitrogen gas dissolves back into the fluid in your joint and you can do it again.

So how do these bubbles help you feel better? The truth is they don’t. But the movement from an adjustment helps restore motion to the vertebrae or joint, taking pressure off the surrounding tissue, sometimes nerve cells, and also creates some feel good chemicals that your body makes on its own.  Joints, unlike muscle tissue, do not have a lot of vascularization, or blood flow. So a vertebra that isn’t moving well has irritated tissue around it, which brings in inflammatory cells that sit and can be very destructive. This can create a painful spot, as well as lead to nerve irritation which will affect where ever that nerve ends up going.  The adjustment restores normal motion and helps flush out this ‘inflammatory soup’ that has been sitting there.

One of the most common questions I get from people is “(so and so) cracks his back all the time, is this dangerous?” I think all of us have stretched at one time and felt that pop that brings some relief. In general this is not bad for you at all. What it does tell you is that you may not be moving to your maximum range of motion due to a restricted joint, and other joints around it might become hypermobile, creating the cavitation you hear. What can be dangerous is applying a lot of force to your back to get that pop. Chiropractors go through a lot of training to learn the proper direction a joint should move, and also the accepted amount of force it can take to move that direction. So leave it up to the professionals to help you restore movement back into your spine, and avoid ‘self-adjusting’ when you can.