美国国家公共电台 NPR 6,000-Year-Old Knee Joints Suggest Osteoarthritis Isn't Just Wear And Tear

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

When you get up in the morning, do you hear a snap, crackle, pop? We're not talking about cereal here. We are talking about your knees. Well, if you reach for the painkiller¹ before that cup of coffee, you are in good company. There's been a noticeable increase in knee arthritis² in recent decades. NPR's science correspondent Richard Harris explains why.

RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE³: Arthritis in human beings is hardly a new disease.

DANIEL LIEBERMAN: There's a famous Neanderthal that has arthritis.

HARRIS: Daniel Lieberman, who studies human evolution at Harvard University, says that ancient specimen⁴ was diagnosed when anthropologists saw evidence of bone wearing on bone minus the usual protection of cartilage, a classic case of osteoarthritis.

Now, a few years ago, Lieberman was putting together a list of diseases that modern humans weren't well-adapted to cope with like heart disease, near-sightedness and lower back pain.

LIEBERMAN: I wanted to include arthritis in the list but realized that there wasn't any really good data.

HARRIS: So Lieberman asked his research fellow Ian Wallace to fly around the country and study human skeletons that had ended up in museums or had been donated to medical schools for scientific research. Wallace says the individuals died as long as 6,000 years ago.

IAN WALLACE: The oldest specimens⁵ that we looked at were some skeletons of prehistoric⁶ Inuit hunter gatherers from Alaska.

HARRIS: The most recent were people who died in Tennessee in 2015. Conventional wisdom is that knee arthritis results from wear and tear, which is why it's more common among older people and those who stress their knee joints⁷ due to excess body weight.

WALLACE: So going into it, I suppose my expectation was that people in the past, especially hunter gatherers and early farmers, would have had a much higher prevalence of osteoarthritis than people do today.

HARRIS: But their study results published in the Proceedings⁸ of the National Academy of Sciences found that's not at all the case.

WALLACE: And so, yeah, I was actually extremely surprised to find that it is more common today.

LIEBERMAN: The incidence of arthritis has more than doubled for people who were born essentially⁹ after World War II.

HARRIS: Again, Daniel Lieberman at Harvard.

LIEBERMAN: And that's an incredible difference.

HARRIS: Lieberman says that's after the scientists corrected for body mass and age. So there's apparently¹⁰ something else at work driving the increase in knee arthritis. The current study doesn't explore that question.

LIEBERMAN: If I were a betting man, I would guess physical activity is really especially important.

HARRIS: Lieberman notes the trend toward sedentary lifestyles since World War II.

LIEBERMAN: You know, one of the things that's really shifted in our world today is that we, well, we sit all the time and kids sit all the time. And that may be affecting how our joints are forming and how our joints are aging.

HARRIS: This makes sense to Richard Loeser, a rheumatologist at the University of North Carolina Chapel¹¹ Hill.

RICHARD LOESER: Your joints aren't like your automobile¹² tires that just wear out as you use them.

HARRIS: He says exercise helps nutrients¹³ diffuse¹⁴ into cartilage in the knee and keep it strong and healthy.

LOESER: If that is formed and more healthy when you're younger, then your joints are more likely to be functioning better and have less osteoarthritis when you get older.

HARRIS: If you're already fully¹⁵ grown, is it too late?

LOESER: No, no, it's not too late because exercise by strengthening your muscles and by stimulating¹⁶ your cartilage can still, you know, improve the health of your joints.

HARRIS: That's not to say that exercise fully explains the trend that the Harvard researchers have noted¹⁷.

LOESER: There may be dietary factors that are also important, sports injuries that have become, you know, more and more common are probably contributing to this as well.

HARRIS: Whatever the case, it appears that knee arthritis is potentially preventable, so the upward trend could eventually be held in check. Richard Harris, NPR News.

1 painkiller   

n.止痛药

参考例句：

• I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
• The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。

2 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

5 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

7 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

8 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

11 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

12 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

13 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 diffuse   

v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的

参考例句：

• Direct light is better for reading than diffuse light.直射光比漫射光更有利于阅读。
• His talk was so diffuse that I missed his point.他的谈话漫无边际，我抓不住他的要点。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 stimulating   

adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的

参考例句：

• shower gel containing plant extracts that have a stimulating effect on the skin 含有对皮肤有益的植物精华的沐浴凝胶
• This is a drug for stimulating nerves. 这是一种兴奋剂。

17 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。