90% of the public will experience back pain at some point in their lives.  Of those 90%, many believe that this pain is due to the back being out of alignment.  People often think that the back can be cracked, put back into proper alignment and that the pain will then go away.  This is not what actually happens.

Most people consider the spine to be a great mystery.  Knowledge, regarding the spine, is based on chiropractic propaganda instead of fact-based research. In the next few blogs I will explain and unravel some of the more common misconceptions regarding the spine.

What happens when you "crack/pop" your back?

 When the spine pops, or when the back is cracked, gas bubbles are being released from inside the joints.  The cracking noise is not the bones sliding back into alignment as most people believe but is instead gas bubbles popping.  When you manipulate the spine, or any other joint in your body, all you're doing is simply pulling one bone away from another bone.  This increases the volume of space between the two bones.  Because there can be no void of space inside the body, something must rush to fill this new space.  What rushes in to fill the space is gas that is dissolved within the fluid inside the joint.  Under normal circumstances, the fluid within your joints is under pressure.  This pressure causes gas in the joints to convert to a liquid form.  A good analogy of this is the bubbles in soft drinks.  With soft drinks, carbon dioxide gas is injected into the beverage under pressure.  Because the gas is under pressure it converts to a liquid form.  This is why when you look at a 2 L bottle of soda, before it's opened, you see very few gas bubbles.  Once you take the cap off the soft drink, you decrease the pressure, and increase the volume of space.  Consequently, bubbles escape from the soda.  Cracking or popping your back is no different than opening a bottle of soda.  You're just decreasing pressure so that the bubbles form and pop.