My cracking joints make me sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies
As someone with EDS, I'm always snapping, crackling, and popping
Some days my body sounds like Rice Krispies that have just had cold milk poured over them. Every time I move I snap, crackle, and pop! With my Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), there are times when I can’t move without making noise — though sometimes that’s from me groaning as I get my stiff body moving, rather than my joints cracking.
I often feel like my joints crunch and pop more than other people’s do, but I don’t know if that’s actually true. You can’t really hear other people’s knees pop or ankles crunch, but I certainly hear my own, and it seems to happen all day long. I often crack my knuckles, roll my neck, stretch my back, rotate my ankles and shoulders, and stretch my wrists, and there’s usually a sound involved.
I do a lot with my hands on any given day, from typing at work to cleaning stalls and carrying water buckets on the farm where I live. Especially since having my right ring finger surgically repaired a few years ago, my hands and fingers often get tight. I’ll stretch each finger individually and then stretch my hands. After they’ve loosened up a bit, moving them usually involves a series of pops.
In addition, my neck and shoulders seem to crunch endlessly. Every time I roll my neck to stretch it, it makes a funky sound. Even if I do it several times in a row, it will crack every time. The same thing happens with my shoulder. If I do windmills with my arms to stretch and loosen them, my damaged right one will pop with every single revolution. My ankles are the last frequent flyer of the group. Round and round they go, snap, crackle, pop! The right one is far worse than the left, but they both crack with every rotation.
When I think about it, my injured joints seem to be the ones that make the most noise. For whatever reason, those injuries have mostly occurred on my right side, so that’s where the popping tends to happen. That’s what makes me think the excessive joint cracking is an EDS thing. If it happened to everyone, wouldn’t all my joints do it? It’s not painful, but it is odd, and it seems to happen more as I get older.
Does anyone else ever feel like they’re a bowl of cereal? If so, does the joint cracking happen more at sites of former injuries? I’m curious if others with EDS experience the same thing.
Note: Ehlers-Danlos News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Ehlers-Danlos News or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Ehlers-Danlos.
About the Author
Crystal Thom
My joints pop and crack loudly with every move. I actually don't seem to be able to move them at all without noise. It makes my poor husband cringe as it sounds so painful. Luckily it does not actually hurt but it can be a bit embarrassing at times. It definitely is worse in the joints I have problems with most often.
Sandy
Hi Karen, your post made me giggle as I could picture you snapping, crackling and popping, just like I do and refer to myself also as a bowl of cereal! Until I realized that this also happens with my sister (also with EDS), I was sure I was falling apart. Especially that neck sound, it's kind of freaky! I'm not sure if it happens more often with previous injury, but I will say I've rolled my ankles too many times to count, albeit without noticeable injury given how bendable I am, but they are definitely the loudest. You are not alone!
Allie
I've always said I'm rice crisps - snap, crackle and pop 😂😅
I never felt more seen hahag
Debra Russell
I had joints that popped so loud co-workers could hear me across 65 people all on the phone! They got so used to it, that I received comments of ‘Good one’ or ‘Wow, that’s a 10!’
Now my hands snap all the time and my friend driving her car heard me crackling away while listening to a song on the radio!
Carol Wong
I am very poppy, at 78 and have hyper mobile Ehlers Danlos, I pop all day long.
Sandra
Oh my goodness that is so me I used to make jokes about it how I could never sneak up on anybody I could never be sneaky cuz you can hear me from a mile away in my twenties my bones really took a turn and the crunching and cracking has 17 I was already diagnosed with arthritis and so on and so forth but all you can do is really just laugh and find humor. cuz there's no cure nothing and just find ways to get through it and most of the time the loud cracking isn't painful but every once in awhile especially for me with my sternum but it also feels so good when it goes back into socket but for that second it's like ow then sweet relief.
Patricia Fritz
My daughter said her joints snap crackle and pop all the time. The ones that hurt the most crack more. I can actually hear her move. She’s 19 now and if I remember correctly, it started around the time of her first major surgery.
She just said this article explains her to a T! So nice to hear from others in the same situation ♥️♥️
Jodi Lynne Ierien
I’m right there with you. I swear, during the Christmas season, I can play “Jingle Bells” on my joints.
Margie
Yes dear. I'm the same with the cracking. And it is getting worse as I age. I tear my tendons and ligaments a lot. I sub lex a lot doing no movement. It's a horrible disease. I don't take anything for pain but it doesn't help anyway.
May God bless you and heal you. No body else can.
Raeann Wolf
This is me exactly and always has been even when younger. What particularly struck me was the comment you made about cracking your fingers rolling your wists and stretching your fingers. I am constantly doing this cracking my elbows even. I think it is because the joints are not really comfortable, even if they are not painful they just don’t feel right .
Craig Lisjak, DC
Appreciate your interest, in speaking for myself and in treating patients with hEDS over 30 years of clinical practice, the injured joints are the most hypermobile due to connective tissue damage. Now totally disabled due to hEDS 2 Spinal Surgeries and a Fused SI joint…joints also surrounding fusions have become progressively most prone to crepitus and compensatory increased rate of degenerative changes.
Respectively,
Craig (a sympathetic Zebra) 🔆
Kimberly Craige
Definitely. I snap crackle and pop all day long, especially in the morning. That isn’t very bothersome, but when my joints become loose I begin to move more slowly, step and reach more carefully. The feeling of vulnerability is disconcerting, but having a diagnosis helps because now I know why it’s happening. Before my diagnosis, my inner chatter was something like, “what’s wrong with me?” These days I don’t have those thought. Instead, I choose an activity that won’t exacerbate my symptoms and eventually I return to my normal routine. Thanks for your article, I can definitely relate.
Theresa
Hi. My twin sister and I crack all over the place. Every time I move my hip often my knee both my shoulders, my neck, my ankle. Yep we are rice crispy treats.
Merri Trifiro
I have hEDS...I crackle and crunch constantly...especially, my> left shoulder, my neck elbows ,knees fingers and ankles..And its also painful. Nothing seems to help...
I do appropriate excercises to keep moving, but pain and crunching havent lessened over the years.
Hearher Vernasco
When I played volleyball in middle school, when we would do partner stretching, my body would also audibly crack. Every partner I had would ask “what IS that” and I always responded that “Snap, Crackle, & Pop live in my body! I don’t know!”
In recent years I read an article something like “What your childhood was like before you knew you had E.D.S. or something like that, and someone actually said “Snap, Crackle, & Pop lived in my body”. Clearly it’s super common. I can hear my neck, with a retrolisthesis of C5 on C6, crack and it reverberates inside my head. When I do certain leg stretches while laying on my back, my sacral joints clack. We live in very freaky bodies.
Jackie
I definitely feel like my joints have popped a lot my entire life. My neck, shoulder, both knees and even my spine cracks on a regular basis. I work out and any bending of my knees involves cracking. Then during Pilates, my spine often cracks. I can pop my sternum just by putting my shoulders back. I’ve never really mentioned it to anyone either!
Carrie
Same thing here!! I have always said my body sounds like rice krispies when you pour milk over them. I never really thought about whether it happens more with past injuries, but you may be on to something there.
Teresa Reinert
Speaking to rice crispy girl. I hear ya, snap crackle pop is my husband’s concerned name for me. Mine can be gritty sounding as well in my neck and knees. I have a diagnosis from a geneticists of Hyper Ehlers Danlos syndrome. But even with that Drs question me like I’m seeking either pain meds or attention. Going to a chiropractor causes me more pain than when I went there to get relief.
Karen Shepherd
Regards the pain aspect of EDS, I'd like to see if our community knows of a condition I might have and if you have information to pass along. I was recently at Mayo Clinic TRYING to address some painful subcutaneous nodules I have all over. The doctor mentioned Dercum's Disease among several others I don't know. He wanted to wait until after the sonogram and biopsy he ordered to talk about things. I await the results. I am in such pain with this with it affecting my walking, sitting, and strength and can't imagine living with it. If you've heard of this or have it or other pain aspects of EDS, I'd like to read or talk with patients who have information to pass along to me. Thank you!
Barb Pryor
I haven't been diagnosed with EDS, but my daughter has. I have many of the symptons. All my life I have been cracking my
fingers, back &, neck. I actually get some sort of relief by doing this. I have not experienced spontaneous cracking, but I
have a lot of body pain and this action tends to relieve the pain in these areas.
Babette Brown
Yes yes yes! My joints pop all the time- particularly my ankles, but also back, knees, and hip. Moving my neck sounds like those rain sticks found in nature stores. Rice Krispies is a good description, and you are certainly not alone. B.