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Chopsticks
may be bad to the bones
By
Jane E. Allen,
Los Angeles
Times
November 3, 2003
Chopsticks, with a history
that dates 5,000 years, provide a simple and neat way to get small bites
of food to your mouth. They also may contribute to arthritis in the
fingers.
A study of 2,500 elderly residents of
Beijing
who had used chopsticks throughout a lifetime
of eating and cooking has linked the mechanical stress of manipulating
chopsticks with osteoarthritis of the thumb, index and middle fingers.
The condition, also known as degenerative arthritis, is the wearing away
of the cartilage that cushions a joint, leaving bone to scrape against
bone. In addition to pain and stiffness, it restricts the ability to
extend and bend the fingers.
Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine X-rayed
participants' hands looking for signs of arthritis, such as narrowing
inside the joint space, worn-out cartilage and the formation of bony knobs
at the ends of the joints. They also compared the hand that wielded
chopsticks with the hand at rest during eating.
Men and women alike had an elevated risk of developing osteoarthritis in
the thumb and middle finger of the hand they used for eating, the study
found. Women had an additional risk of developing it in the index finger.
Researchers haven't quantified the stress that chopstick use places on the
fingers, but they have determined its effects. Among women, the stress
accounted for 36% of the likelihood of developing osteoarthritis in the
small joint of the thumb; the figure was 25% among men, said lead
researcher Dr. David J. Hunter.
Researchers asked about other hand activities, "including
calligraphy, which is very common among Chinese, and did not find any risk
associated with those activities," Hunter said.
The findings were announced last month at the
American
College
of Rheumatology Scientific Meeting in
Orlando
,
Fla.
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