I crack my neck every morning when I wake up. This really iritates my mother, who tells me that there was this chiropractor who cracked his neck on a golf course and actually died because he cracked it improperly.
Now, I can see how using your hands to twist your neck out of aligment could cause some potentially serious problems, maybe even death–maybe, I don’t know–but could just turning the neck itself sharply be severe enough to cause spinal problems, or, more importantly, death? (I’m talking about just moving the neck itself here, not using a hand or anything else to manupulate it).
I’ve been wondering if there was any legitimacy behind this one for a while.
Why on earth would you voluntarily crack the very mechanism that allows you to move, breath, feel, and live? Just from the pure reason my spinal cord rund right through my neck would be reason enough not to crack it. As for the factual answer to your OP? I’d say yes you could do serious damage. How old are you? The bones and muscles in your neck may not be fully formed, and the cracking my be able to be quelled later in life. But I am not sure. I know when I dig up a skull of various forms - I’m an archaeologist don’t worry - one way aside from size that we gauge age is the formation of the bones of the back of the neck where the spine meets the head…
You’re far more likely to be hit by lightning on a golf course than to significantly injure yourself by flexing, extending, or rotating your own neck by using your own neck musculature.
I remember reading an article years ago, but I don’t remember the specifics. Some guy down south cracked his neck as he was going into church, caused some damage, and died a short time later. Sorry, no cite. This is a pre-internet memory.
A rare case, Johnny. And I feel quite certain that these are due to underlying disease or anatomical abnormality. In much the same way a brain aneurism can suddenly rupture while the individual is having a bowel movement. Or how a fatal arrhythmia can be initiated by a coughing fit. They do happen. But rarely. Not something to worry about on a day to day basis, unless one wants to be very paranoid all the time.
Qadgop: In fact, I’ve only heard of it happening that one time. I did think of it though, when I was on a solo flight 8,500 feet over the Mojave Desert. I cracked my neck and then morbidly imagined what would have happened if I had some sudden turbulence and broke it. Oh, yeah; I could see the airplane heading gracefully to the ground.
(Of course, I tend to think funny things. When riding the motorcycle at 80 mph, I would imagine what would happen if I suddenly and deliberately jammed the forks hard over. Not that I’d do it; just thinking about the mechanics of the crash.)
I crack my neck a lot - used to use my hands sometimes, but I stopped doing that because it sort of felt dangerous. I doubt you’re facing a serious risk, or even a risk to begin with. Especially a risk of death. I’ve been told by doctors you’re not at risk for arthritis either, which is another thing a mother is likely to say.
I’d sorta like to know what the deal with the cracking is myself. I can do my neck, knuckles, toes, and ankles. Occasionally I’ll get my knees as well, though I’m not sure it’s the exact same mechanism. I’ve been told the question of what is happening has not been definitively settled.
I don’t have a cite for this but I keenly remember this from when I was a teenager. There was an article in the Houston Chronicle about a man who was popping his neck and he died because he ruptured a vein or something. My brother popped his neck alot and I can remember my mother pointing this article out to him over breakfast one morning before school.
I crack my neck all the time… heck, I crack everything I got that can crack, and some things I thought couldn’t until they went POP one day! I’m still alive. Although I have stretched it too far, and it felt like I strained a tendon or something.
For what it’s worth, the anecdote in the OP just sounds too much like an urban legend to me. I mean, it’s too perfect… A CHIROPRACTOR cracking his neck? A “Doctor” dying on a golf course? Treating himself, then dying because of being misinformed in his own area of expertise?
That’s whay I thought, myself…but just on the off-chance, I figured I’d give my mother the benifit of the doubt and see if there was any truth to it before I completely wrote it off. (I’ve done it before with what I thought was insanity spewage from her, and stood corrected. [Last post]).
