Is cracking your neck unhealthy?!
Question: and could there be any long term side-effects?
Answers: and could there be any long term side-effects?
Cracking your neck constantly can become a habit and thus an addiction. Although, there have been reports of headaches, loss of vision and lightheadedness; other than that, there are no major drawbacks. However, you have to know what you're doing. You might do more harm and damage than good.
If you are a chronic neck cracker you are probably doing more harm than good. What happens when someone repeatedly manipulates his or her neck?
Hypermobility should not be confused with clinical instability.Hypermobility versus clinical instability: With hypermobility, ligamentous laxity can produce tight, achy muscles and may lead to early onset of arthritis. Clinical Instability, on the other hand, can be a serious, even life-threatening condition. It usually results from significant trauma or from certain diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (not the degenerative type of arthritis) . In clinical instability, the excessive motion of the vertebrae can cause pressure on nerves and the spinal cord leading to serious neurological problems. Hypermobility is not clinical instability. Furthermore, a person with a hypermobile spine does not usually go on to develop clinical instability.
SUMMARY: If you often crack or pop your neck yourself, it probably means that the joints are hypermobile. The ligaments are a bit lax so the joints move a little more than they should. In response, the muscles tighten up to stabilize the joints. This makes your neck feel tight and makes you want to crack it. When you do that, the muscles are momentarily stretched, they relax somewhat, and you feel better for a while. But when you crack your neck you also stretch the loose ligaments further which makes the muscles tighten up again. It