Does knuckle cracking lead to arthritis of the fingers?
Four articles on PainSci cite Unger 1998: 1. The Complete Guide to Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain 2. The Complete Guide to IT Band Syndrome 3. The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome 4. The Complete Guide to Neck Pain & Cricks
PainSci commentary on Unger 1998: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
This study won an “Ig Nobel Prize,” awarded to Donald L. Unger for diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand only — never his right — every day for more than sixty (60) years. What did he find? “There was no arthritis in either hand, and no apparent differences between the two hands.… there is no apparent relationship between knuckle cracking and the subsequent development of arthritis of the fingers.”
related content
- “The consequences of habitual knuckle cracking,” R L Swezey and S E Swezey, West J Med, 1975.
- “Effect of habitual knuckle cracking on hand function,” J Castellanos and D Axelrod, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 1990.
- “Habitual knuckle cracking and hand function,” P A Simkin, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 1990.
- “Knuckle cracking and hand osteoarthritis,” Kevin Deweber, Mariusz Olszewski, and Rebecca Ortolano, J Am Board Fam Med, 2011.
- “Clinical Inquiry: Does knuckle popping lead to arthritis?,” Tye Powers, Gary Kelsberg, and Sarah Safranek, J Fam Pract, 2016.
- “"Knuckle Cracking": Can Blinded Observers Detect Changes with Physical Examination and Sonography?,” Robert D Boutin, Anuj P Netto, David Nakamura, Cyrus Bateni, Robert M Szabo, Michael Cronan, Brent Foster, William R Barfield, J Anthony Seibert, and Abhijit J Chaudhari, Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research, 2017.
- “Effects of habitual knuckle cracking on metacarpal cartilage thickness and grip strength,” M T Yildizgören, T Ekiz, S Nizamogullari, A D Turhanoglu, H Guler, N Ustun, M Kara, and L Özçakar, Hand Surg Rehabil, 2017.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.
- Photobiomodulation therapy is not better than placebo in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Guimarães 2021 Pain.
- No effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation on inflammatory and cartilage degradation biomarkers in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Cornish 2018 Nutr Res.
- The CANBACK trial: a randomised, controlled clinical trial of oral cannabidiol for people presenting to the emergency department with acute low back pain. Bebee 2021 Med J Aust.