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On Thu, 5 May 1994, Roger Carlson wrote: > To perhaps start another thread, I have a question for our on line > doctors: I crack my knuckles and sometimes my neck. I have heard that the > popping noise may be due to the creation of a low pressure area in the joint, > which cavitates a bubble out of solution in the fluid of the joint. I try not > to do it after diving, but bad habits are hard to break. Since this bubble, if > that's what it is, normally goes back into solution, where does cracking a > joint after diving fall on a scale of good to bad? Very interesting point! I asked essentially the same question a while back on CompuServe, and never really got a definitive answer (other than: "It probably has little or no effect on bubble formation"). I eagerly await the feedback you get here! The reason I asked the question on CompuServe relates to an experience I had when I suffered my severe DCS hit. (Sorry forlks - another diving anecdote....I'll try to keep it as brief as possible!) Moments after surfacing from the last deep dive of the day (just before the symptoms hit me), I reached back and "cracked" my back (this is a habit of mine which I developed in high school). It was by far the most "intense" back-crack I had ever experienced. About a minute later, the severe CNS symptoms came on in force. Given the profile of the day, I have little doubt that I would have been badly bent regardless of cracking my back. However, because I had heard of the cavitation explanation of cracking joints, I've always wondered if cracking my back had exacerbated the symptoms by forming bubble nuclei. Also, I've wondered if cracking my spine facilitated the onset of CNS symptoms - rather than joint paint (again, I'm fairly certain I would have been badly bent regardless - I've just wondered what, if any, effect the cracking had...) I wouldn't have given it too much thought, except I heard of someone else having a very similar experience - after a dive she was fine until she twisted her back & "cracked" it, shortly afterwhich she experienced severe CNS DCS symptoms. Thanks for posing the question on this forum - I look forward to reading the medically-informed responses. Aloha, Rich
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