Well, now you have a good reason to stop trying. People who regularly use chopsticks have a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis in the hand they use to eat with, a new study says.

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Increased osteoarthritis risk
There is a small increased risk of the development of osteoarthritis in the first, second and third fingers of the hand with a lifelong exposure to chopstick use, says study author Dr David Hunter, an assistant professor of rheumatology at Boston University School of Medicine in the US.

Hunter is to present the findings Oct. 25 at the American College of Rheumatology's annual scientific meeting in Florida.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease of the joints caused by the loss of cushioning cartilage between the bones. When the cartilage wears away, bones rub together, causing pain and sometimes disability. Osteoarthritis most often affects people over 45, and women are more likely to have the disease than men.

The research study
Hunter and his colleagues randomly recruited 2 507 residents of Beijing who were 60 years old. Nearly 1 500 were women. All reported regular use of chopsticks for both eating and cooking.

The researchers interviewed the volunteers, asking them which hand was dominant, which hand they used to eat with, and many questions about their lifestyle. They also took X-rays of both hands, so they could compare the hand that normally held chopsticks with the one that didn't.

They found that joints involved in chopstick use were more likely to have arthritis. Twenty-six percent of the study volunteers had arthritis in their thumbs. Chopstick use accounted for 20 percent of the risk of developing arthritis in that joint in men and 37 percent in women.

Hunter says the researchers tried to account for other factors that may have led to the increased prevalence of arthritis, such as writing calligraphy or doing heavy manual labour. The only factor that was consistently responsible for an increased risk of arthritis was chopstick use, he says.

Reasons unclear
The researchers don't know why chopsticks make arthritis more likely. Hunter says it may be the position of the fingers or the force needed to use them properly. He adds that people who use chopsticks occasionally probably don't need to worry.

Hunter says he can't tell from this study whether using other utensils such as forks could increase the risk of developing osteoarthritis.

Dr Todd Schlifstein, a clinical assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at New York University School of Medicine, says, I think with anything you do repetitively, there's wear and tear and possibly degenerative arthritis.

Loosen your grip
As for chopstick use, he says it might be helpful to loosen your grip. People often have problems with their fingers from gripping their pens too tightly, but loosening the grip and changing pens to a more ergonomically designed one can often help.

Hunter says changing the design of chopsticks to make them more ergonomically friendly might help, too. - (HealthDayNews)

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