Middle-aged men and women may be risking arthritis if they overdo their exercise regime, research suggests. An article on the BBC web site reports that a US study of more than 200 people aged 45 to 55 and of “normal” weight found those doing the most exercise were the most likely to suffer knee damage. Of course sitting on the couch for too long can also be harmful to health!
To read the full article, click here
Hmmm. Interesting article (again)! To make the overall picture even more interesting, I’ve had two doctors tell me essentially that “we now know that running doesn’t cause osteoarthrities of the knee.” So when I saw this, I was fascinated, and so I did a quick search in Runner’s World (knowing I could trust them to have picked up on some of the research with happy news for runners and their knees), and found this. I’ll be curious to figure out how these data fit together, or whether they simply conflict. Enjoy! 😉
From Runner’s World Online, Sept. 17, 2009:
Exercise Doesn’t Cause Knee Arthritis, But Might Prevent It
The knee, a problem joint for many people, whether athletes/runners or not, seems to follow that old chestnut: Use it or lose it. Research in this area is turning the corner from the older, pre-conceived notions of many, who apparently figured your knees could only handle so many miles, so rest and relaxation extended their useful life. In fact, the opposite is true. Both of the studies here indicate that regular exercise probably improves the knee health of those who don’t have an underlying problem, ie, an existing injury to the knees. Exercise, in fact, could help prevent knee arthritis. The second leads to a free, full-text article, so you can read the entire review yourself. The first, based on a research study, concludes: “Vigorous physical activity is beneficial to patellofemoral joints for people without preexisting cartilage damage. Weight-bearing vigorous physical activity might, therefore, be useful in the prevention of patellofemoral osteoarthritis. Article 1; Article 2
Link for Article 1: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19644895