Joints crack snap or pop anyone??

[Sherlock]

Interesting thoughts, but I doubt you can temporarily weaken a tendon. Tendons and ligaments are pretty much like ropes and shock cords. Either they hold or they snap, in which case unless a surgeon stitches them up they never go back to the length they were - that is certainly what happens for long head of biceps or Achilles tendon and cruciate ligaments, which is why tearing one is such a disaster for a professional athlete.

That's the one part that I do wonder about, regarding the possible mechanism of weakening a tendon. Yet something happens, my joints do get loose in a day.

But btw. a tendon can get partially torn without snapping. I have had injured tendons off and on over my entire life - yet never a complete rupture requiring surgery.

I have torn a posterior cruciate ligament years ago, pre-CFS. I've always been inflexible and had joint pains.

I think lifting would be to do with muscles, unless a tendon actually tore apart.

Muscles can and should automatically lessen their contractile force if the body senses that tendon injury might imminently occur. That self-protection feedback can be overcome by great emotion or by electrical stimulation.
When a mother "lifts the car off her child", she will likely get very injured. (Or endurance-wise, you can also work a muscle to complete failure so that you can't voluntarily move it anymore, then hook up electricity and that muscle will move just fine.)

And I don't think you can actually overcome hydraulic immobilisation! Try squashing a pint of beer into a smaller size. It is not very rewarding. Hydraulics can lift 40 ton lorries. If you try to bend something full of water all that happens is that something snaps and the water leaks out - which is actually not uncommon in swollen knees.

I was thinking more in terms of squishing water out of a sponge. E.g., you can use compression stockings/bandages or even finger pressure to force water out of a swollen ankle or finger, unless it's hardened.

I realise that there are all sorts of situations here but my main thought about the original question about popping joints is that they are usually not a sign of anything to worry about.

I hope you understand that I'm not trying to beat a dead horse or win any debate.. I'm just as always looking for comments from others that can prove helpful.

I've only had mostly myself to go over this with.

 

[melamine]

There have been periods of weeks to a couple months when my joints - knee joints in particular - would loosen and start displacing and crackling when I walk. I don't remember which if any other symptoms worsened at the same time. I wonder if this, if true, had anything to do with it:

"People low in sulfate are likely to react to salicylates, food colors and other additives. They might have arthritis or crackly joints". http://www.detoxpuzzle.com/sulfate.php

 

[Sherlock]

There have been periods of weeks to a couple months when my joints - knee joints in particular - would loosen and start displacing and crackling when I walk. I don't remember which if any other symptoms worsened at the same time. I wonder if this, if true, had anything to do with it:

"People low in sulfate are likely to react to salicylates, food colors and other additives. They might have arthritis or crackly joints". http://www.detoxpuzzle.com/sulfate.php

I believe that's referring to cartilage degradation - which wouldn't arise or go away suddenly. The sulfur compound MSM has long been recommended for joints, though I experienced no benefit.

You might know that Dr Stef Seneff is the sulfur guru, with various youtubes out there.

Have you got any ideas on what the "loosening" is anatomically?

 

[melamine]

Have you got any ideas on what the "loosening" is anatomically?

I'm afraid my anatomy is not that good. Only know that my knees became unstable for awhile when joints were especially noisy, and never investigated the cause. I think I had started using glucosamine/sulfate briefly but not very consistently, and don't recall thinking it was the reason for the joints returning to normal eventually. I was not familiar with Dr Seneff.

I notice in your signature that you too have bad problems with tendons/tendonitis? The tendons in my legs are very painful now when I squat. I tend to have inexplicably high or high normal ACE. I had been researching Mast Cell disorders recently and will have to look into the angle with chymase and tryptase that you mention.

 

[Sherlock]

I'm afraid my anatomy is not that good. Only know that my knees became unstable for awhile when joints were especially noisy, and never investigated the cause. I think I had started using glucosamine/sulfate briefly but not very consistently, and don't recall thinking it was the reason for the joints returning to normal eventually. I was not familiar with Dr Seneff.

I notice in your signature that you too have bad problems with tendons/tendonitis? The tendons in my legs are very painful now when I squat. I tend to have inexplicably high or high normal ACE. I had been researching Mast Cell disorders recently and will have to look into the angle with chymase and tryptase that you mention.

You get hypertension? You're the only one I've encountered here for years.

Can you crack your knees and get some immediate pain relief? I do that many times per day - right knee only. When the knee is out of position, that tendon will tense up and never heal.

 

[melamine]

You get hypertension? You're the only one I've encountered here for years.

By "get" hypertension, do you mean not generally, but circumstantial? Not sure. My regular BP is around 120/___ rather normal.

Can you crack your knees and get some immediate pain relief? I do that many times per day - right knee only. When the knee is out of position, that tendon will tense up and never heal.

My knees are never painful even when they were unstable - except for the pull of the tendons on them when I squat. That kind of pain from knees to feet has been constant for about the past 5 years and has never seemed to be related to anything with my knees, but who knows. I do crunch my back for relief occasionally when it's in a painful phase.

 

[Sherlock]

By "get" hypertension, do you mean not generally, but circumstantial? Not sure. My regular BP is around 120/___ rather normal.

My BP was always good, until CFS. Post-CFS, when I get sick, my BP would go up. However, BP has been high steadily for 1.5 years, coinciding with the tendonitis.

As you might be aware, most here have hypotension. Maybe your high ACE prevents that?

 

[melamine]

As you might be aware, most here have hypotension. Maybe your high ACE prevents that?

ACE is another one of those things that is hard to research, I've found, apart from conditions it's conventionally associated with.

 

[jann1033]

1) crackly joints can be a sign of arthritis. When it was first developing , it came and went. It still isn't constant. An xray would detect if thats the problem. A couple of my joints have hypermobility, particularly my right thumb. So far no concrete dx of why.

2)My BP is all over the place. It fluctuates from high, low ,normal, no sense at all to it. I read that can be a sign of hypertension. I take a low dose of meds for bp for a different non CFS problem but it doesn't regulate it. Usually its too low now but what ya gonna do

3)Some medications can cause problems with your tendons, mostly pain. I remeber taking one for cholesterol that did that to me. You may want to check for side effects of anything you take

 

[jann1033]

I don't know if I have post lyme disease, post viral syndrome or me/cfs. I have been sick for many years.
Does anyone experience just turning neck and getting a loud snap noise or when trying to straighten their mid back hear and feel all the bones crack? In addition my joints/ligaments are what I would call hyper mobile or weak. I am prone to injuring myself sometimes just lifting up a suitcase or even opening a tight unopened jar.
Some days this just goes away like many other symptoms. I think it is all related somehow.

I do recall a good thought i read somewhere. with weird illnesses like ME/CFS sometimes we tend to look for zebras instead of horses when something else arises. We can get just plain old illnesses or problems like everyone else. So its always a good plan to start with common and work up to the uncommon.

 

[troi]

I have the hypermobile joints, with a low-normal muscle resting muscle tenstion (laxity) (any lower and it would be associated with autisim) and a system of muscle spasms or extreme tightness areas here and there, which don't hurt but restrict correct movement. When I was in good shape I didn't notice but now it is a problem. I also can injure myself fairly easily because nothing aligns right and I move or lift funny in compensation. Physical therapy helps, but keeping on top of it is hard as I get tired or spaced.

 

[Justin_Sohan]

These joint-popping sounds (crepitus is the medical term) are a common symptom of the Chinese "HIV-like" virus, the symptoms of which can be found on this website:

New HIV-Like Virus in China

@Hip
Oh my god. It is exactly what I am feel. Does it seems like CFS to you or a totally different disease?

 

[Hip]

Oh my god. It is exactly what I am feel. Does it seems like CFS to you or a totally different disease?

There is a lot of similarity between the "HIV-like" viral disease in China, and ME/CFS. And I have a strong suspicion that the Chinese "HIV-like" virus may simply be a nasty strain of coxsackievirus B, which is a common virus linked to triggering ME/CFS.

That might explain all the intense chronic chest pain that the Chinese virus can create, because coxsackievirus B can cause pleurodynia (Bornholm disease), which involves lots of chest pain.

It might also explain why researchers in China could not find any virus in the patients with the "HIV-like" virus, because in chronic coxsackievirus B infections, it is hard to detect the virus in the blood, and this virus can only be reliably detected by certain specific blood tests like the sensitive micro-neutralization tests offered by ARUP Lab in the US.


In some ways the Chinese "HIV-like" virus is not as bad as ME/CFS, because there are reports of many patients in China with this virus improving after around 2 years. After 2 years, many of their symptoms get better.

Do you have many of the mental and physical symptom of Chinese "HIV-like" virus? Like chest pain, severe anxiety, depression, anhedonia, thoughts of suicide, twitching muscles, etc?

I myself caught a virus very similar to the Chinese "HIV-like" virus, which caused lots of nasty mental symptoms such as anxiety, depression, anhedonia and suicidal ideation. This virus also triggered my ME/CFS.

Details of my virus are given on my website here: https://chronicsorethroat.wordpress.com My virus also spread to 30 or more friends and family, but most people did not get the severe symptoms that I experienced. Most had quite mild symptoms. I think this is also true of the Chinese virus: most people who catch it don't get the severe symptoms.

It's not clear whether my virus is the same as the Chinese "HIV-like" virus.

 

[u&iraok]

What about supplementing with good 'ole omega 3 fatty acids for cracking joints?

 

[Valentijn]

What about supplementing with good 'ole omega 3 fatty acids for cracking joints?

I already supplement fish oil for my chronic ME headache. It doesn't really help with my joint issues.

 

[u&iraok]

I already supplement fish oil for my chronic ME headache. It doesn't really help with my joint issues.

It did help me with the cracking. Every time I moved, something would crack. It didn't bother me physically, no pain or discomfort but it just didn't seem right. It went away and never came back after supplementing with fish oils. An 18-year old boy we know was having the same cracking issues, I gave him fish oils and his cracking went away also.

Now joint issues, that's a bigger problem. I seem to be just starting to get those, time to look into some bigger guns for that.

 

[Konflict]

I currently have this.....,I believe it's EDS and how soooo many people here are unaware of it including Edwards.

It's not just joint cracking that people get when trying to crack a joint on purpose, it literally makes ALL joints in the entire body crack, pop, borderline dislocate and actually can cause dislocations. This is what's been happening to me over the last 5 months, I feel pain in my spine 24/7. If I rotate any joint like ankle or shoulder all you hear is crackle crackle crackle, if I bend my knee in it pops (literally feeling my knee jolt) and also pops on the way back out. My left index finger is basically useless, and I must take hydrocodone just to function the pain bodywide is so bad.

Don't know what to do....EDS is so commonly under and misdiagnosed, I just had an appointment at UCSF and the asshole geneticist claimed I didn't meet the criteria for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome type 3 (the hyperbole version) although many of my joints are now hypermobile, but there are around 11 types total and not all are hypermobile. Honestly this pissed me off greatly and I'm going to make another appointment and demand to be tested for something this time, he didn't want to test me at all. If this get to the point where I'm bed ridden and can't move due to chronic dislocations and spinal subluxations then I'll probably just commit suicide..that's the plan for now. I mean if this has developed this progressively in only five months then imagine in a few years....I'm done.