Your question is best asked to doctors and therapist who deal with subluxation release. There are many different kinds and probably a professional can ascertain what is best for your body. 20 -30 years ago (I am 68 now) I had chiropractors which released the pockets but did not resolve them. The cracking had moved from my knuckles to my spine. About 10 years ago, I was having surgeries which eliminated the problem entirely. Two years ago, I had cervical spine surgery open parentheses two of them) and I had a horrible subluxation in my neck which needed to be released by a professional. It wasn’t painful at all. It just made the most horrible pop noise Because my neck is so close to my ears. He did it twice and it hasn’t returned. I needed some adjustment after the surgeries and then I strengthen the muscles around my neck spine so everything was good to go. You can Google on the Internet, why the subluxations happen and what can be done to resolve them and then my suggestion is to try a variety of methods and always keep a primary care doctor in the loop if you have degenerative disc disease and ligament issues as you age. Involve a variety of therapist and doctors so that you figure out the best answer. Some pockets and subluxations are part of being hyper mobile a normal part of life and some need to be dealt with with therapy and exercise and a small amount needs surgery. As far as I can tell from my 35 years of dealing with this stuff, my body needed to get adjusted, and then I needed to strengthen the ligaments/muscles around the joints strongerto hold the hyper mobile joints in place. So it takes the opposite action of passive behavior and continued repetitive actions.Good luck!