Can playing piano cause Arthritis or Ostheoarthritis?

[rovis77]

 Can playing piano cause Arthritis or Ostheoarthritis?

[geopianoincanada]

I am arthritic. I don't think piano practice can cause arthritis.

But arthritis - especially when weather changes - most certainly does get in the way of piano practice.

[lelle]

A risk factor for arthritis is joint trauma and with improper technique in particular you can expose your finger joints to repeated trauma so I don't see why not.

[ranjit]

Apparently, Oscar Peterson got arthritis in his teens because he played the piano 10 hours a day, so it's not unheard of.

[lostinidlewonder]

Piano practically has no chance to cause arthritis unless you are hammering the utter heck out of it (255kg of force per/cm²) You are more likely to get nerve, tendon, muscle injury with very poor practice habits rather than anything to do with your joints wesring themselves out.

"Cartilage can accommodate a slowly applied load better than an impact load. Impact loads above a certain threshold can acutely disrupt cartilage surfaces. The magnitude of load required to acutely disrupt the cartilage surface is reported to be 25 MPa (approximately 3600 psi)."