Does knuckle cracking cause arthritis: myth or reality? We’ve all been told that knuckle cracking causes arthritis. But is that really true?
Fortunately, knuckle cracking has been the subject of a fair amount of research. One of the most famous pieces of research was conducted by a doctor in California, Dr Donald Unger, who set out on a mission to see if cracking knuckles really causes arthritis as many people claim.
In order to prove his theory, Dr Donald Unger, cracked the knuckles of his left hand at least twice a day for over 60 years whilst never cracking knuckles on his right hand. The knuckles on the left were cracked at least 36,500 times. The results of his personal experiment were surprising. Decades later, he took X-rays of both his hands and found there was no difference between his hands and no signs of arthritis in his left hand.
Dr Unger concluded that cracking knuckles does not cause arthritis. He stated: “There is no apparent relationship between knuckle cracking and the subsequent development of arthritis of the fingers.”
Whew. Thank God somebody's out there who's obsessed with a silly idea...
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