Many people crack their own neck and some even prefer it when they see their chiropractor. But, is it good for you and does it actually do anything? For some, it scares them that their neck cracks. We will explore what actually happens when your neck pops and is cracking good for you?
What Makes The Sound?
Between your articulating bones you have synovial fluid fill sacs that cause the smooth gliding we take for granted. It’s only once these sacs are decreased and we feel pain that we notice them. When these joint spaces are stretched, the fluid becomes a gas and is released which is when you hear the popping sound. Especially in your neck, you can hear a lot of pops if you are adjusted manually. That is because each vertebrae has 6 articulating surfaces that match up with each other vertebra on either side of it. so even moving one bone can yield a lot of pops.
Why Does It Feel Good To Pop?
The reason some people get addicted to the pop and its gratifying for them is because when it pop’s you have a release of endorphins. Endorphins are the feel good molecule produced by the pituitary in the brain that is used to manage pain. People love the feeling of feeling good so they keep popping their knuckles or back or neck.
Can Cracking Be Bad For You?
When getting adjusted, some who prefer this method feel the popping is a confirmation that it was a quality adjustment. They feel like they gained something out of it and got something for their money. If you body releases endorphins each time you pop a joint, how would you know if it was quality or not? That’s why when you get popped or cracked it can only last a few hours before the pain comes back. The adjustment was masked by the endorphins and the correction was not done well.
Also, in order to produce there pops, as you read above you must stretch the joint space. The more you do it the more it needs to stretch each time and can cause ligament damage if done repetitively too often in the same spots. This in turn causes the need to have it done more and more.
Also in the world we have found that some people will blame having a stroke on getting adjusted. This does not happen very often but should be addressed nonetheless so as to clear the air. In these people, they already had an embolism that was jogged loose possibly from the adjustment or from something else. When I say this doesn’t happen often, I mean 5 times out of 100,000 adjustments for a stroke or 1.46 serious adverse effects per 10,000,00 adjustments or 2.68 deaths per 10,000,000 adjustments.
Sure it is scary to think anyone could die from this but were they about to have a stroke anyways when this happened? You have a higher risk of dying from hospital accidents than chiropractic adjustments per year. As many as 1 in 25 people develop infections when hospitalized and as many as 400,000 die from hospital errors, injuries, accidents, and infections each year. Or, you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of being struck by lightening in your lifetime. Which do you have a higher chance of dying from? Answer the question yourself, is cracking good for you?
Why We Don’t Prefer To Crack In Our Office
In our office we prefer not to crack your neck for several reasons. that’s not to say we don’t if someone prefers it but we do what we can to avoid it. We use an instrument to do the adjusting for our patient that’s more precise and zero risk of adverse effects. With mentioning before, the the manual adjustment is masked by endorphins, there is no popping with our technique so you know exactly what you get with it instead of being masked. If you want to read more about our technique, check out our blog on TRT HERE!
Moral of the story, if you like the crack of the neck, keep it up but know the risks of it like doing anything else or that there are other methods out there. Find someone who does what I do if you are on the fence about chiropractic care but hate the idea of getting your neck cracked. You can even call us and ask as we know people around the country that do what we do and would gladly refer you to them! If you are Near Parker Colorado, please follow the link below for your new patient eval at our new patient special to see how we can help you and your family stay safe and healthy! I hope you were able to figure out with this is cracking good for you. Stay healthy, stay informed, awaken your health!
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR INITIAL ASSESSMENT!
Yours in Health,
720-381-6139
6208 E Pine Ln, Parker CO 80138
