掰手指关节会导致关节炎吗？ Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

Some people crack their knuckles by pulling the tip of each finger one at a time until they hear a crack. Others make a tight fist or bend their fingers backwards away from the hand, cracking the lot at once. If you are one of those people who sits and cracks your knuckles while others wince, at some point somebody is bound to have told you that cracking your joints gives you arthritis. 有些人会一根根的掰手指使关节发出响声，有些人会握拳或同时将手指向后压听关节响。如果你是这其中的一员，那在某个时刻肯定会有人告诉你这样做会导致关节炎。

For some it’s a nervous habit; for others the sensation brings relief. Depending on which research you read, between 25 and 54% of people do it, with men more likely to do so than women.
对部分人来讲，掰手指关节是紧张的表现，但也有人通过这一习惯得到放松。根据接受调查的25个人当中，有54%的人有此习惯，并且男性多于女性。

Whichever method is used, the noise is created in the same manner. The space between the joints increases, causing the gases dissolved in the synovial fluid bathing the joint to form microscopic bubbles. These bubbles merge into large bubbles which then get popped by additional fluid which rushes in to fill the enlarged space.
无论是用何种方式令关节作响，发生方式是一样的。关节间空间加大，导致气体溶解在润滑关节的体液中产生微小的气泡，这些微小气泡逐步合并成大气泡，在更多体液流向并填补被加大的关节空间时产生破裂发出响声。

Once the joints have been cracked they can’t be cracked again for about fifteen minutes. This gives the space in the joint time to return to its normal size and for more gases to dissolve in the fluid, ready to form bubbles which can then pop all over again.
当关节受到挤压发出响声后，将在15分钟内无法再次作响。这期间，关节间隔将恢复正常，更多气体溶解在体液中，为下次作响做准备。

Taking an engineering approach, cracking the knuckles repeatedly over many decades could in theory damage the cartilage covering the joint. Comparisons have even been made with the mechanical wear and tearaccrued over time by ship’s propellers, but the evidence that the same is happening in people’s hands is thin.
用工程学的方法示例，理论上来说，数十年的掰手指关节会挫伤覆盖在关节表面的软骨组织。与船只螺旋桨长期累计的机械损伤做比较，可得到的证明人类双手会发生同样损伤的证据并不充分。

So how did the idea of a relationship between knuckle-cracking and arthritis emerge? It’s true that people who already have arthritis sometimes find their joints crack because the cartilage of the surface of the joints has been damaged. However it’s unusual for this to be the first symptom and it seems more likely to be a consequence of damage, rather than a cause. The risk factors of arthritis that have been established are age, a family history of the condition, and previous accidents with hand, or a lifetime of working with your hands doing heavy labour.
人们是怎样将掰手指节和患关节炎联系到一起的呢？身患关节炎的人有时会听到自己关节嘎嘎作响，这是因为其覆盖在关节表面的软骨组织已遭到破坏。然而，把关节响作为关节炎的第一症状并不常见，并且这更像是软骨遭到损伤后的结果而不是原因。罹患关节炎的风险因素有：年龄，家族病史，手是否受过创伤，以及长期使用双手从事重体力劳动。

OK, but could cracking your knuckles cause other forms of damage? There are isolated reports of accidental self-inflicted injury from knuckle-cracking, with injured thumbs and sprained finger ligaments, but these are rare.
OK，但是掰手指节是否会产生其他伤害呢？有其他相关的单独研究报道，其中包括拇指受伤和手指韧带扭伤，但此类情况非常少见。

So if you like cracking your knuckles then by all means carry on, but just bear in the mind the conclusions of the doctors who carried out the research in the LA nursing home. They said: “The chief morbid consequence of knuckle cracking would appear to be its annoying effect on the observer.”
综上所述，如果你喜欢掰手指就继续掰吧！但请记住在洛杉矶疗养院研究人员得出的结论：“掰手指首要的病态后果就是会让研究人员感到厌烦。”