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Joint cracking
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==Relation to arthritis== The common [[old wives' tale]] that cracking one's knuckles causes [[arthritis]] is without scientific evidence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rizvi|first1=Asad|last2=Loukas|first2=Marios|last3=Oskouian|first3=Rod J.|last4=Tubbs|first4=R. Shane|date=August 2018|title=Let's get a hand on this: Review of the clinical anatomy of "knuckle cracking"|journal=Clinical Anatomy|language=en|volume=31|issue=6|pages=942โ945|doi=10.1002/ca.23243|pmid=30080300|s2cid=51920825|issn=0897-3806}}</ref> A study published in 2011 examined the hand radiographs of 215 people (aged 50 to 89). It compared the joints of those who regularly cracked their knuckles to those who did not.<ref name="Deweber">{{cite journal |vauthors=Deweber K, Olszewski M, Ortolano R | title = Knuckle cracking and hand osteoarthritis | journal = J Am Board Fam Med | pages = 169โ174 | year = 2011 | doi = 10.3122/jabfm.2011.02.100156| volume = 24 | pmid=21383216 | issue = 2| doi-access = free }}</ref> The study concluded that knuckle-cracking did not cause hand osteoarthritis, no matter how many years or how often a person cracked their knuckles.<ref name="Deweber"/> This early study has been criticized for not taking into consideration the possibility of confounding factors, such as whether the ability to crack one's knuckles is associated with impaired hand functioning rather than being a cause of it.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Simkin|first=Peter|title=Habitual knuckle cracking and hand function.|journal=Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases|date=November 1990 |volume=49 |issue=11 |page=957 |doi=10.1136/ard.49.11.957-b|pmid=2256753|pmc=1004281}}</ref> The medical doctor Donald Unger cracked the knuckles of his left hand every day for more than sixty years, but he did not crack the knuckles of his right hand. No arthritis or other ailments formed in either hand, and for this, he was awarded 2009's satirical [[Ig Nobel Prize]] in Medicine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2009 | title=2009 Winners of the Igยฎ Nobel Prize| date=August 2006|access-date=27 November 2011}}</ref>
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