> GRANDMA'S HIP OSTEOARTHRITS
>
> COULD IT HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?
>
> "Acetabular Rim Syndrome in Young Adults: A Major Cause of Osteoarthritis of
> the Hip..."
> --Warren Hammer, MS, DC, DABCO
> http://www.chiroweb.com/columnist/hammer/index.html
>
> OPEN LETTER (archived for global access at http://groups.google.com)
>
> Warren Hammer, MS, DC, DABCO
> Norwalk, Connecticut
> softissu@optonline.net
>
> Warren,
>
> In 1953, Harrison et al. called hip osteoarthritis "the
> commonest clinical site of severe osteoarthritis." [Harrison et al. J Bone
> Joint Surg 1953;35B(4):598-626]...
>
> You say of hip osteoarthritis that it "may be crucial" to recognize
> "acetabular rim syndrome" before development of hip osteoarthritis.
>
> You write:
>
> "Acetabular dysplasia causes secondary osteoarthritis in 25 percent to 50
> percent of patients by the age of 50 years...recognizing what is sometimes
> called 'acetabular rim syndrome' before the development of this disease may be
> crucial..."
> http://www.chiroweb.com/columnist/hammer/index.html
>
> You indicate that the hip motions of "flexion, adduction and internal
> rotation" will cause early acetabular rim symptoms "due to overload of the
> acetabular rim."
>
> Aren't flexion, adduction and internal rotation the hip motions of the
> fundamental human rest posture called squatting?  See the photos of two
> different flat-footed squats in Fahrni WH. Orth Clin N Am 1975;6(1):93-103.
> In one photo (p. 94), the feet and knees are adjacent.  In another (p. 95),
> the feet are shoulder-width apart and the knees are spread wide.
>
> Can it be that people in squatting cultures are somehow paradoxically AVOIDING
> "overload of the acetabular rim" by squatting daily - i.e. - by daily
> PERFORMING hip "flexion, adduction and internal rotation"?
>
> I ask because in 1974, orthopedic surgeon DR Gunn exclaimed "Don't sit:
> Squat!" in an article in which he noted "the virtually complete absence of
> primary degenerative arthritis of the hip" in Southeast Asians...
> [Gunn DR Don't sit: Squat! Clin Orth Rel Res 1974(103):104-5. Taken
> from a larger article by Gunn in the Indian Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery]
>
> In 2002, Nevitt et al. studied Chinese elderly in Beijing, China and wrote:
>
> "[H]ip OA was 80-90% less frequent than in white persons in the US."
>
> See Nevitt MC, Xu L, Zhang Y, Lui LY, Yu W, Lane NE, Qin M, Hochberg MC,
> Cummings SR, Felson DT. Very low prevalence of hip osteoarthritis among
> Chinese elderly in Beijing, China, compared with whites in the United
> States: the Beijing osteoarthritis study. Arthritis Rheum. 2002
> Jul;46(7):1773-9. PubMed abstract]
>
> Nevitt et al. concluded:
>
> "Identification of the genetic and environmental factors that underlie these
> differences may help elucidate the etiology and prevention of hip OA."
>
> What if (as suggested by Gunn and others) the etiology of much hip
> osteoarthritis is the fact that we chair-dwellers - as a consequence of our
> chair-dwelling - fail to take our hips through the full range of motion - as
> we lose a fundamental human rest posture?
>
> See Biomechanics experts to help babies?
> http://health.groups.yahoo.com /group/chiro-list/message/1693
>
> Canadian orthopedic surgeon W. Harry Fahrni (citied above) recommended
> allowing and encouraging children to maintain their innate flat-footed
> squatting ability into adulthood.
>
> Fahrni's recommendation accords with your "conservative treatment" for
> acetabular rim syndrome. ("Conservative treatment, consisting of flexibility
> stretching and strengthening of the pelvic and lower extremity muscles, should
> be attempted.")
>
> Warren, thank you for your article, "Acetabular Rim Syndrome in Young Adults:
> A Major Cause of Osteoarthritis of the Hip..."
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Todd
>
> Dr. Gastaldo
> Hillsboro, Oregon
> todd@chiromotion.com
>
> PS As an aside, Grandma's stroke risk is the same as baby granddaughter's
> stroke risk...
>
> See Baby stroke risk = elderly stroke risk (Lee et al. UCSF)
> http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/chiro-list/message/3728
>
> I believe obstetricians are causing strokes in babies via gruesome spinal
> manipulation - closing birth canals up to 30% (semisitting and dorsal
> delivery) and KEEPING birth canals closed the "extra" up to 30% (keeping women
> semisitting or dorsal) when babies get stuck - as they pull with hands,
> forceps and vacuums - sometimes pulling so hard they rip spinal nerves out of
> tiny spinal cords.
>
> It's a chiropractic emergency, Warren.
>
> I mention the chiropractic emergency for obvious reasons - but also because
> it's relevant to this post:  Obstetricians have blamed their bizarre practice
> of closing birth canals up to 30% on our culture-wide loss of the easy
> squatting ability.
>
> See British obstetrician Jason Gardosi et al.'s 1989 Lancet "randomised
> controlled trial of squatting" where nobody squatted because - ostensibly -
> sedentary Western women cannot squat well enough to deliver squatting.
>
> NOTE #1: It took some time, but Gardosi now RECOMMENDS squatting at delivery -
> this after assuring me in a personal letter in 1990 that two British trials
> had demonstrated that squatting delivery is "definitely NOT an option."
> (Emphasis Gardosi's - LOL!)
>
> NOTE #2:  Women do NOT have to squat to allow their birth canals to open the
> "extra" up to 30%.
>
> See ACOG's 2005 edition: How NOT to birth
> http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/chiro-list/message/3606
>
> I may as well mention UNNECESSARY C-SECTIONS and UNNECESSARY EPISIOTOMIES...
>
> As noted at the just cited URL, obstetricians are slicing vaginas and abdomens
> en masse (episiotomy/c-section) - surgically/fraudulently inferring they are
> doing/have done everything to open birth canals - even as they close birth
> canals up to 30%.
>
> Of course, compelling obstetricians to allow birth canals to open maximally
> will not prevent all c-sections or episiotomies or forceps use - but
> obstetricians have no business keeping birth canals closed the "extra" up to
> 30% when babies get stuck.
>
> Similarly, Western culture has no business robbing children of their innate,
> comfortable prolonged flat-footed squatting ability - regardless whether
> squatting prevents hip osteoarthritis.
>
> Warren, feel free to reproduce this email, in its entirety, anywhere you like.
>
> This Open Letter to Warren Hammer, MS, DC, DABCO will be archived for global
> access in the Google usenet archive.
>
> Search http://groups.google.com for "Grandma's hip osteoarthritis"