Sticky situation

People with arthritis should avoid regular use of chopsticks when eating, as a study suggests that the practice may aggravate joint pain.

One early study by University of Sydney professor of medicine and rheumatologist David J. Hunter involved recording the joint cartilage loss of 2,500 elderly Beijing residents who eat with chopsticks. Cartilage loss causes joint bones to rub on each other, which is painful.

The researchers found that the joint within the thumb appeared most vulnerable to chopsticks-aggravated arthritis from the mostly septuagenarian members of the study group, according to Science News.

They attributed the cartilage damage in the elderly people studied to the repetitive pinching motions associated with using chopsticks to eat and cook. However, Hunter said social or occasional use of chopsticks may avoid arthritic pain.

Aside from aggravating joint pain, chopsticks had caused severe headaches to a Vietnamese man.

The guy's headache lasted five months, so he consulted a doctor. The 35-year-old man underwent a CT scan at the Cuba Friendship Hospital in Dong Hoi on 25 November, Fox News reported.

The CT scan result shocked both him and the doctors as the image showed a pair of chopsticks lodged inside his skull.

It was only then that the patient realized that he was stabbed in the head by something he couldn't recall during a drunken fight five months earlier. The chopsticks went through his nostril and almost pierced his brain.

A surgery removed the sticks inside the man's skull without complications, and he was expected to fully recover, according to the report.                   

WJG @tribunephl_wjg