What is the "Cracking" Sound during a chiropractic adjustment?

Today I want to answer some of the questions we get asked here in the office.

What are the popping and cracking?

Your spine is a series of moveable joints. Those spinal joints can move, lock, and fixate out of their normal position. When this happens, pressure and gas build up in the spine causing pain, headaches, sometimes some nerve irritation.

Chiropractors remobilize these spinal joints and realign them. When that happens, oftentimes, there will be an audible pop or a cracking sound. Quite simply what that sound is, is gas being released from the joints. It's a combination of oxygen and CO2, and the joints sliding back into their normal position.

The purpose of these chiropractic treatments is to relieve pressure and pain in the spine. So I hope this answers all your questions. Until next time, its Doctor Jeffery Gerdes, your Chiropractor.

In health,

Jeffrey Gerdes, D.C.