NPR

6,000-Year-Old Knee Joints Suggest Osteoarthritis Isn't Just Wear And Tear

Even after a Harvard team took into account differences in age and weight among ancient specimens and knee joints today, they found that modern humans tend to have more osteoarthritis.
Arthritis is a joint disease that can cause cartilage destruction and erosion of the bone, as well as tendon inflammation and rupture. Affected areas are highlighted in red in this enhanced X-ray.

American doctors have been noticing an increase in osteoarthritis of the knee. They have suspected two driving forces: more old people and more people who are overweight.

A published in this week's argues that's far from the whole story. Even correcting for body mass index and age, osteoarthritis of the knee is twice as common now as it was before the 1950s.

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