Arthritis Theory

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 3

Arthritis Theory

r.Vew Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 1. Two seemingly unrelated facts that primitive peoples are neither troubled by osteo-arthri-tis of the hip. nor do they sit on chairs—have become linked by medical research. The possibility that better designing of schoolchildren's chairs could avoid 40 per cent of oesto-arthritis cases “represents an unexpected research bonus of some magnitude,” says Dr. Colin Alexander, of Auckland, in reporting this discovery to the Auckland Medical Research Foundation.

Dr. Alexander first found support for believing that sitting on chairs caused damage to the cartilege in the hip—the childhood disease of slipped epiphysis at the hip joint. Now. he says, an English radiologist has produced evidence that 40 per cent of cases of primary osteo-arthritis of the hip joint are associated with stress on the neck from postures consistent with sitting on chairs. “About 500 X-ray diagnoses of osteo-arthritis are made every year in Auckland,” Dr. Alexander said.