Moose study suggests that osteoarthritis may be linked to malnutrition

July 8th, 2010

A fifty-year study on osteoarthritis in moose suggests that many cases are linked to malnutrition at an early age – and that the same may well be true for humans.

Arthritis is often regarded as condition that affects some people as they age, but a growing body of evidence indicates that the roots are found early on in life.

Scientists at Michigan Technological University have been studying the problem in moose on a wilderness island national park in Lake Superior for five decades.

Since 1985, researchers have studied the skeletal remains of over 4,000 moose on Isle Royale.

Lead author Rolf Peterson, whose team’s findings are published in the journal Ecology Letters, revealed that moose osteoarthritis is “identical” to that found in humans and became increasingly apparent as the researchers entered the second decade of their study.

The team noticed that osteoarthritis became more common as the moose population increased and became less common when food was scarcer and the population shrank.

They also discovered that malnourished youngsters were more likely to develop osteoarthritis in older age.

Dr Peterson said that the study had provided a “unique insight” into the complex causes of osteoarthritis.

“We have shown how malnutrition early in life increased the risk of osteoarthritis later in life, but this also applies to humans as much as to a herd of moose in the wild,” he explained.

“The link between early nutrition and arthritis, in both people and moose, reveal that osteoarthritis is more complex than commonly assumed and involves connections between physiology, life histories, populations and communities, while highlighting the importance of the disorder for past and present humans.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 1:52 pm |

« ‘Normal activity’ recommended for back pain | Common vaccines ‘do not raise risk of rheumatoid arthritis’ »

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.