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# About four in ten knees creak, and plenty of them do not hurt
- URL: https://the-health-brief.ghost.io/about-four-in-ten-knees-creak-and-plenty-of-them-do-not-hurt/
- Published: 2026-10-23T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T13:59:59.000Z
- Description: In 103 studies of 36,439 people, 36 in 100 with no knee pain still had noisy knees.
- Author: Walt Brennan

| Feel-good Friday There is a step on our cellar stairs, the fourth one down, where my left knee goes off like a pepper mill. It has done this for about three years. It grinds on the way down and pops on the way up. It does not hurt. But each time I hear it, I think the same thing. That is the sound of a knee wearing out. Carol hears it too. She says it sounds like a man walking on cornflakes. My father had the same noise. His knees crunched each time he knelt in the garden to pull weeds. He used to say it was rust… and he meant it. I grew up sure that a loud knee was a worn knee, and that it was only a matter of time. So this week, with the whole issue given over to knees, I went to find out what the sound means. It has a name. Doctors call it crepitus. That is the crackle, click, or grind you hear or feel when a knee bends. I had two plain questions. How common is it? And should it scare me? A quick question · tap to answer Do your knees click, pop, or grind? Tap one. A ready-to-send reply opens, just press send. [Yes, and it hurts](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Quiz%3A%20Noisy%20and%20it%20hurts&body=My%20answer%3A%20Yes%2C%20my%20knees%20make%20noise%20and%20it%20hurts.) [Yes, but no pain](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Quiz%3A%20Noisy%20but%20no%20pain&body=My%20answer%3A%20Yes%2C%20my%20knees%20make%20noise%2C%20but%20there%20is%20no%20pain.) [Now and then](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Quiz%3A%20Now%20and%20then&body=My%20answer%3A%20My%20knees%20make%20noise%20now%20and%20then.) [No, they are quiet](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Quiz%3A%20Quiet%20knees&body=My%20answer%3A%20No%2C%20my%20knees%20are%20quiet.) How common is the noise In January 2025, a team at La Trobe University in Melbourne pooled 103 studies. Together they took in 36,439 people. The work came out in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, a journal for the doctors who treat joints and sports injuries. The team asked a plain question. How many knees make noise? The answer took me by surprise. In the general public, about 41 in 100 people had noisy knees. Among people with no knee pain at all, it was 36 in 100\. In other words, more than one in three people with a good knee still hear it creak. If a noise meant a knee was failing, that would be a lot of failing knees. So I am in good company on the cellar stairs. Think of the folks who squat for the low shelf at the grocery store. A good share of them crackle on the way back up… and most never say a word about it. The count 103 studies, 36,439 people. Noisy knees in 41 of 100 people overall, and in 36 of 100 people with no knee pain. The honest half Now the part I would rather skip. The same review found that noisy knees were tied to arthritis. The kind they mean is osteoarthritis. That is when cartilage, the slick pad on the ends of the bones, thins and gets rough. Of the people who had it, 81 in 100 had noisy knees. A creaky knee was also linked to more than three times the odds of arthritis on an X-ray. Odds, by the way, are just a way to say how much more likely a thing is. But bear in mind how the team graded all this. They called it low or very low certainty. That means the studies were small, mixed, or done in different ways. The authors said plainly to read the results with care. There is one more study worth your time. In 2018, a team at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston looked at 3,495 people who did not have painful knee arthritis. Their average age was 61\. Over four years, those whose knees made noise more often were more likely to end up with painful arthritis. For those who said their knee was always noisy, the odds were… about three times higher. Most of the new cases came in people whose X-rays already showed some arthritis. But look at it the other way round. Two of the La Trobe authors read that same study and pointed out that about two in three of the always-noisy group did not get painful arthritis in those four years. So the noise is a hint, not a sentence. Or put another way, it nudges the odds. It does not decide them. Does it always get worse? That brought me to the fear under the fear. Say my knee does have some arthritis. I took it for granted that it could only go one way. Down. I was wrong about that too… at least for most people. In 2020, a team of bone doctors in Switzerland and Italy pulled together seven studies. They took in 7,747 people with knee arthritis, most of it early or middling. The team tracked how pain changed over a few years. Pain held steady for 85 in 100 people. It got better for 8 in 100\. It got worse for 7 in 100. There is a catch, and it is a fair one. Day to day, pain bounced up and down for close to half of them. So a bad week is normal. It does not mean the knee has turned for the worse. The team also found no clear proof that a bad X-ray at the start meant worse pain later. That fits what we saw on Tuesday about scans and pain. I find that steadying. For most people, knee arthritis is a long road. But it is a flat one, with bumps. The long view 7 studies, 7,747 people with knee arthritis. Over a few years, pain held steady for 85 in 100, eased for 8, and got worse for 7. That was the week Monday, ten slow chair stands. You sit down and stand up from a kitchen chair, slowly, ten times. The CDC uses a timed form of it, the 30-second chair stand test, to check leg strength. Cochrane is a group that weighs all the good trials on one question as a set. Its December 2024 review took in 139 trials and 12,468 people. Exercise eased knee pain by about 9 to 13 points out of 100\. Small. But real. Tuesday, why your knee X-ray and your knee pain often disagree. What the picture shows is not the same as what you feel. Wednesday, tai chi, the slow Chinese exercise done in soft, flowing moves. In a trial of 204 people with knee arthritis, two classes a week for 12 weeks did as well as physical therapy. The gains held for a year. Thursday, shoes. In a six-month trial of 164 people, walking pain fell 2.1 points out of 10 with sturdy shoes. With flat, bendy ones it fell 1.1. Here is how the week adds up. Use your knees, slowly and often. Try a slow class if you like company. Wear a shoe with some support. And if your knee pops on the stairs, you can hear it as company… not a warning. I still take the cellar stairs a dozen times a day. The fourth step still sounds like a pepper mill. I have stopped flinching at it… mostly. Carol has not stopped calling it the cornflakes step. When to stop and call your doctor A noise with no pain is usually not something to chase. See a doctor soon if a noisy knee also hurts, swells, gives way, or locks so you can't straighten it. Get help the same day if the knee turns hot, red, and swollen, above all with a fever, or if you can't put weight on it after a fall. And go to a hospital now if pain shoots down a leg with numbness or weakness, you go numb between your legs, or you lose bladder or bowel control. Quick poll · tap to answer Where does it hurt most? Tap the spot that troubles you most. It helps me choose where to dig in. Just press send. [Back](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Hurts%3A%20back&body=It%20hurts%20most%20in%20my%20back.) [Neck](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Hurts%3A%20neck&body=It%20hurts%20most%20in%20my%20neck.) [Hips](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Hurts%3A%20hips&body=It%20hurts%20most%20in%20my%20hips.) [Knees](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Hurts%3A%20knees&body=It%20hurts%20most%20in%20my%20knees.) [Hands](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Hurts%3A%20hands&body=It%20hurts%20most%20in%20my%20hands.) [Feet](mailto:hello@thehealthbriefdaily.com?subject=Hurts%3A%20feet&body=It%20hurts%20most%20in%20my%20feet.) I read every reply. Here is to a calmer trip down the cellar stairs,**Walt** The Health Brief is for education only. It is not medical advice. Always check with your own doctor about your own situation. |
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