When my back starts hurting, I have someone crack it, and then it feels better. I heard air bubbles or gas is released. Can some explain it to me like I’m five about why this would relieve pain and how it all works?
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This phenomenon is called ‘crepitus’ and no one’s really sure what causes it. There are three main theories however.
The one you’re likely thinking of is ‘cavitation’. Tiny air bubbles in the fluid surrounding your joints pop under the change in pressure caused by moving the joint. Ever been on an airplane and felt your ears pop from the change in pressure? Like that.
Another suggested cause is your tendons ‘popping’ as they roll over your bones, catch and release. Stretch out a rubber band and roll it against something long ways. Feel that tension and stretch, and then the snap back into place?
Finally it’s been suggested that the popping sensation is due to the bones in your joints grinding against each other. Just straight up clicking into their neighbors when you bend them a bit out of shape beyond their typical path of motion, or too quickly for them to smoothly adjust and stay out of the way. I’m not entirely sure, but I think this theory suggests that the cartilage that normally protects your bones from wearing away at each other is thin, worn, damaged, or slipped out of place, or you’re stretching in a manner that knocks them outside of areas where the body placed handy biological kneepads.
As for pain relief, unless you have a trapped/pinched nerve (and I don’t recommended this as a solution to fix that!) the pain you’re experiencing a ‘relief’ from likely has more to do with the muscles that have been holding on position for too long. They’re fatigued, and stiffened. The motion of ‘releasing’ your back for a crack triggers a change in the muscle state. A tiny ‘jolt’ of sensation that resets the muscles from their holding pattern. This relief is likely only temporary if you don’t correct the posture putting strain on your body.
Alternatively, it’s possible that cracking causes very minute amounts of damage to your body, just enough to trigger the body’s pain relief protocols. Like rubbing your eyes, it’s just under the threshold for actually registering pain, so it ‘feels good’ because the body over compensated with its feel better brain chemicals. Be very careful with this. Too much, too often, too many back to back will cause damage over time. You can wear down the cartilage, and stress the tendons (and with rubbing eyes, damage your cornea).
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