Like a
lollip on a stick ..that’s slipped back a bit.
An off-centre head on a short femoral neck.
And the explanation lies in how..
- Humans became ‘running apes’
I wrote this line in
Newsletter #057..- ‘1 in 5 male humans have a cam deformity’
How do we know that? Well, a study from Sweden published in 2010
..looked at the
x-ray films of
4,151 people, and they found:
A
Cam deformity in:
- 20% males (1 in 5)
- 5% females (1 in 20)
A
Deep socket in:
- 15% males (1 in 7)
- 20% females (1 in 5)
Hip Osteoarthritis in:
- 10% males (1 in 10)
- 11% females (1 in 10)
(Easy numbers to remember in brackets) Did Deformity => Osteoarthritis? Well we
can’t say that one led to the other directly..
(from this data at least)BUT we
can say that either deformitiy
(Cam or Deep socket)..
- More than DOUBLED the risk of Hip Osteoarthritis (OA)
It’s solid data from a large number of people.
And when read with the
insight from our Woolly Rhinoceros relatives..- ‘Most mammals do NOT need a large range of hip rotation’
..persuades me to pay close attention to
how I move about.
BOTH in the
gym + in everyday life..
That covers
Cam shape hip 'deformity'..
- Evolution
- Development +
- Numbers affected
What about deep sockets? Well that gets even more interesting.
(in my opinion!)From above,
Deep sockets affect
~1 in 5 of us.
And more than
DOUBLE the
risk of OA..
BUT whereas the evolutionary tale of the
Cam hip helps me personally..
The evolutionary explanation for
Deep sockets is
academically satisfying. And it can help patients like Amanda
The patient who sparked this deep dive..
