Joint cracking is one of those habits most of us acquire without thinking about it. In our third episode, we turn our attention to one of the body’s most common and least understood noises. Knuckles, backs, knees and necks all feature, along with the enduring warning many of us grew up with: “Stop cracking your joints, you’ll get arthritis.” Is there any truth in it? And why can cracking feel so strangely satisfying?

Hosts Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt turn this week to Clodagh Toomey, a specialist in musculoskeletal injury and chronic lifestyle-related diseases such as osteoarthritis, to give you the science behind the myths.

Strange Health is a podcast from The Conversation is an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. If you like the show, please consider donating to support our work. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation here.

Hosts: Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, University of Bristol

Executive Producer: Gemma Ware

Editing and mixing: Anouk MIllet

Artwork: Alice Mason

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• What makes joints pop and crack and is it a sign of disease?
• Joint pain or osteoarthritis? Why exercise should be your first line of treatment