Mediancat

I have a friend who swears by getting her back "popped" regularly . . . a couple times a day, if she can find someone to do it. She did it to me a couple of times and I didn't feel any benefit.

I have a suspicion, which I have not been able to prove or disprove, that this is simply cracking your knuckles on a larger and possibly more dangerous scale. Anyone know the truth about this?

Rob aka Mediancat

edited because I somehow put "numbers" for "knuckles."

[ September 30, 2002: Message edited by: Mediancat ]</p>

doubtingt

Joint popping is just the releases of gases that build up in the joints. Chiropractioners make all kinds of unfounded claims about beneficial effects. They crack backs so violently that they can very well cause harm. However, normal cracking has not been shown to be harmful and there is no obvious reason why it would be.

I crack my own neck all the time. It feels good immediately afterwards and I get a temporary
sensation as though the muscles around the joint have relaxed. I wish I knew more about what actually causes this positive sensation.
Even if there is actual muscle relaxation, I'm not sure that constitutes "amazing benefits". Besides, in my experience the more you crack, the more you feel you need to crack. I'm addicted.

elwoodblues

Cracking joints (be they knuckles or vertebrae) has no real adverse affects. It doesn't cause arthritis or inflame the joints. If it feels good, knock yourself out. Myself, I crack my neck and back occasionally. Don't worry yourself about it.

Ab_Normal

It may not have any adverse affects, but listening to someone else crack their joints gives me the willies. Especially when they grab their own head and twist like they want it to come off. *eeeeew*

Corwin

Believe me.... sometimes that's how it feels before you do it.

Undercurrent

There was some issue in Canada a while back about chiropractors doing radical "adjustments" to the neck (essentially twisting the head really hard to get the neck to crack) which caused fatal strokes hours to days later from the stress on the arteries.

I never heard what came of that. Anyone have any info?

m.

Corwin

Haven't heard anything one way or the other, but I'm going to make a wild guess at urban legend.... or that it was found to be unfounded. The arteries in the neck are critically important... any damage serious enough to cause that, I can't see it taking hours or days to be noticeable.

It's possible, I just don't see it as being terribly likely. Hyperextended vertebrae would be more of an issue I'd think.

tronvillain

No, I recall reading about the case, and it is definitely not an urban legend, but it is not entirely clear that it was the chiropractor. Read about it <a href="http://www.canoe.ca/Health0204/22_lewis-cp.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

Dark Jedi

Personally, I think there are two kinds of chiropractors. Charlatains and professionals.

A charlatain is one who will take anybody, perform bone manipulation and have you come back regularly.

A professional is one who diagnoses a real problem and defines a solution. Then works toward that solution.

I broke my back in March of '92. Details involve youth, girls, and showing off, and we need not revisit them...

I had recurring back problems resulting in loss of lower body sensation. The x-rays, bone scans, MRI's and such could turn up nothing. It was, however, demonstrable. I could place my feet, and rotate my body just right, then collapse to the floor, legs numb and unresponsive.

Finally, they referred me to a chiropractor. This was the US Navy medical corps, they do not refer to chiropractors (or at least didn't then).

The chiropractor requested all my scans and photos, and reviewed them before he would see me.
When he saw me, he did some movement tests, including a slow demonstration of my collapsing, this time in front of a radiation bone scanner.
He watched a recording of the bone motions for quite a while, then declared he had the problem.

Three months of adjustments later (ouch, by the way.), I had freedom of movement like I had never been injured. He then had me come for another 3 months that I had to wear a brace to hold my spine in it's new alignment while it healed.
I had to alternately lay on cold pads (kept in a liquid nitrogen suspension. No shit.) and hot pads (after that cold pad, felt like they were filled with lava, I suspect just a simple heating pad in reality), then he would examine the alignment and put the brace back on.

This was a doctor, not a charlatain. More like a back specialist with a good working knowledge of muscle interaction and whole body mechanics.

10 years later, my back is still fully functional.

Undercurrent

I found some additional info partway down on <a href="http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chiro.html" target="_blank">this page</a>. I think the Kristi A. Bedenbaugh case described there was the one I was thinking of (although I'm sure it was brought up in connection with similar Canadian cases.)

m.