Since I was 9/10 I had a habit of cracking my fingers. And at the beginning, it would hurt, but now as of today, no pain whatsoever, but I would still feel the effects of cracking my hands.

I'm now trying to get out of the habit of it and so far its a once in a while a day, compared to constanly a day *instead of full cracking of fingers, its just twidling with the thumb, or moving the shoulders slighty, to feel the bones moving, as I just recently did some research on how early you can get arthritis. But it wasnt really specific if cracking hands makes your conditions worse.

Could anyone tell me if arthritis can be more vulunerable if you keep cracking your fingers at all?

Also, just to get this out of my system, can drinking milk *or have it for cereal* help reduce the chances of having arthiritis?

There are many types of joint-disorders that go under "arthritis" - take a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthritis

Calcium in general is good for the bones, but there are many factors to a proper diet that count too. Exercise helps alot as well. Anything that causes a mild "shock" to the skeletal system makes it stronger by causing the body's mechanisms to "pay attention" to the affected areas and improve them.

Also, the mechanics of joint health has alot to do with the muscle and tendons around them and I suspect a proper fluid intake would be crucial as well.

EDIT:
Oh yes, as for cracking/popping sounds from joints - there hasn't been any scientific evidence that voluntarily causing such painless cracking noises has any effect whatsoever (especially in relevance to forms of arthritis).

EDIT #2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_cracking - not surprisingly, there's an article about that as well.

EDIT #3:
I should mention that I can crack almost every single joint in my body, including my whole spine. I'll let you know in 20 years if I get anything else except people staring in disbelief.

I think the arthritis thing is an old-wives tale. I also used to crack my knuckles frequently, and still do from time to time, which is why I wanted to know for sure whether what my parents were telling me (about arthritis) was true.
Seems it isn't, but I actually found the explanation for what causes the popping sound just as much of a deterrent. IIRC, it's fluid rushing from one part of the joint to another. Think what sort of pressure it must be under to make those loud, sometimes very loud, cracks! Can't be good

Well, I do Karate as an exercise, I train 3 times a week. I also have milk in cereal every day now (fibre diet) *for some reason I don't like milk when its alone, but love it with cereal*

Clearly I should be fine. But to save bother, I tend to stop the habit completely. To be honest, the more I think about it, the more my hands feel a bit weird lol. Only because I'm concentrating on them.

I also crack my wrists, *like they do in martial arts to intimidate*

I tend to see the doctor for a checkup, just to be on the safe side and to learn more about it. It's happened to my grandad, and because I can type max 90 wpm, and I love to play LFS, and drive, you can see why I made this topic .

LOL' illepall
YOU ALL NEED HELP!
Ring DR. Phill lmao I suppose its ok to give up the finger cracking and substatute it with the thumb twiddling' BUT if the thumb twiddles stops Dont start playing withyour self
My advice chineese stress balls

omega.. which.. actually is fish oil; but no, cracking knuckles or anything doesn't do any damage, its just popping bubbles of some sort i dont remember exactly, but i know its not bad for you (but yes, it is addicting.. hard habbit to break)

as for arthritis itself, aleve should alleviate your pains (<< for those of you who never knew where the name aleve came from)