Jump to content

Crackling Ankles?


cardiactec

Recommended Posts

For me cracking usually goes along with my eds, loose joints. Normal people crack sometimes, and are usually told not to worry unless it's accompanied by pain.

For me, I pay attention to increases in popping/cracking, as it usually means that joint is getting looser. I then need to rethink what I may be doing/have done to stress it out. For me, it can be very minor things. For example, after I injured my left ankle, the stress of limping made my rt ankle poppy. and because I didn't know better, it eventually gave out too. It then took 18 mons of bracing, rehab, and injections to restabilize. It doesn't give on me much anymore, but I managed to damage some of the cartialge from having it subluxate on me so often.

Now I' m more proactive in protecting my joints, as I know they're all made of less than great collagen. I can't ask one to take up the slack for another without asking for trouble.

However, if you don't have eds, and you've always popped painlessly, I wouldn't necessarily worry. I have a friend whose ankles crack a lot, left over from sprains many years ago. But she's stable.

If you are concerned, you could get some physical therapy to stabilize them/ and/or a brace for when you're really active. At the very least, you could look at your footwear-- I need really good arch and metatarsal support. Some folks do well with orthotics. I wear birkenstocks and I love them.

www.ednf.org has a lot of info on ankles on the message boards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like Michele said, the snap, crackle and pop sounds happen often within the "normal" population.

My joints are hypermobile due to EDS, and my feet & ankles happen to be quite weak--I've sprained the right ankle one more times than I'd like to admit, and the left one about half as many times; I own "aircasts" for both ankles and have had PT several times. I now know how to do the routines myself. I've also dislocated toes in the past few years while walking barefooted in my house or wearing sandals that are too stiff. I have to wear shoes that are stable or I my ankles tend to "roll" to the outside and put me at high risk of another bad sprain. My worst ones have also injured the bone at the knee, where the tendon pulls on the head of the bone.

So, to reitterate--if you have no noted joint pain, swelling, dislocations or sprains, it's probably just the normal bodily noise. If you're not sure, see an orthopaedist.

Nina :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my ankles cracks when I'm walking up stairs. That's relatively new for me, but my knees have cracked since I was about 8 years old. It drove me crazy how often people said, "you're too young for that!" I've never had any pain or injury in my knees, so it doesn't seem to be an indication of anything serious for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Knee cracking for most people usually just means the knee cap moves into the groove. A lot of people have somewhat tight/short lateral thigh muscles that pull on the kneecap a bit. It's really only a problem if you have pain associated with it.

Though, before I was diagnosed with eds I had clicky knees that hurt intermittently--till the day they started REALLY sliding out of the groove and subluxing with sharp pain, where I had to squirm my leg around to get them back in. So it's a matter of degree

Normal tissue won't usually let you sublux/dislocate without serious trauma. Though a lot of normal people get arthritis under their kneecaps, in part because the kneecaps don't track/ride quite right. My knees stopped cracking so much when we discovered pt exercises that lengthened the outer quad and strengthened the inner part of the quad. So even with pretty advanced arthritis, when my kneecaps ride right, the pain is minimal and the noises stop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...