Some people love having their back cracked, they’re obsessed with it. Other people want anything to get relief “but just don’t crack my back.” However, the reality is that the results you get from visiting a chiropractor has very little to do with whether the joints crack, or how many joints in your spine pop.
Chiropractors are just trying to loosen up restricted spinal joints that cause nerve irritation, inflammation, and muscle spasm. And there are many ways to do this. Some techniques cause more cracks than others, and the amount of muscle spasm, inflammation, and individual anatomy plays a large role too.
What causes the pop during a chiropractic adjustment?
When chiropractors press on the spine, they are usually trying to move sliding joints in the vertebral column that have become stuck. The sliding joints have a bit of lubricating fluid (“synovial fluid”) in between the joint surfaces, so are a bit like two sheets of glass pressed together with some fluid between them. (If you try to pull the sheets of glass apart, the fluid tends to hold them together.)
When the chiropractor pushes on the joints, they can suddenly separate by a few millimetres. This breaks the vacuum in the joint and draws soluble gases out of the lubricating fluid. As it does so, it can create a noise that sounds like a crack. (If your palms are moist and you press them together then pull them directly apart you can sometimes create a similar sound.)
What does cracking your back actually do?
Separating the joints by a few millimetres can do a few things. It can help to break up any adhesions in the joints. And it can stimulate the movement receptors in the joints which can cause a reflex relaxation of the local muscles. If the joints are stuck in a position causing irritation, it’s possible that an adjustment can help to realign the joints a bit better. There are a lot of theories on how adjusting the spine can help people, and more research needs to be done.
BUT, whether or not cracking noises occur during an adjustment really doesn’t matter. If the joints move better, the muscles relax, or the inflammation starts to subside… that’s what we are really after. And it has to be done to the the right joints. Cracking any old joint wont help. You have to be able to localise the right joints first and that is part of the skill of a chiropractor.
How do chiropractors know where to adjust?
Stefan Becker
Barcelona Chiropractor