Here is an interesting article from today’s Daily Telegraph. Looks like hip surgeons won’t be running out of work anytime soon…..!
Hip and shoulder pain could get worse in the future because our bodies are suffering a ‘hangover’ from evolution, Oxford University has claimed. Researchers studied 300 bones and fossils from species spanning 400 million years, including reptiles, primates and Neanderthals to see how joints had altered over time. They found, that as man began to stand on two legs, bones began to change so that they could carry the extra weight of an upright posture.
However it also left humans susceptible to conditions such as arthritis and back pain, and the trend is likely to continue.
Dr Paul Monk, who led the research at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, said: ‘We see certain things very commonly in hospital clinics – pain in the shoulder with reaching overhead, pain in the front of the knee, arthritis of the hip, and in younger people we see some joints that have a tendency to pop out. “We wondered how on earth we have ended up with this bizarre arrangement of bones and joints that allows people to have these problems. It struck us that the way to answer that is to look backwards through evolution.’
The team created a library of 3D models which they could compare to see how they had changed over millions of years. They found that as human ancestors started to move on to two legs, the neck of the thigh bone grew broader to help support the extra weight. But a thicker thigh bones makes arthritis more likely. And it is likely to get worse over time, they predict. Dr Monk added: ‘What is interesting is if we try and move these trends forward, the shape that is coming has an even broader neck and we are trending to more and more arthritis.’
A similar pattern could be seen at the shoulder where a natural gap which allows the tendons and blood vessels to pass through, is becoming narrower over time. As the space narrows it becomes more difficult for people to move their arms up over their heads. The researchers have produced interactive models of how human joints alter over time so that specialists making prosthetics or dealing with orthopaedic complaints know how bones are changing.
