Weight
Combined diet and exercise improves knee osteoarthritis
People with knee osteoarthritis who are overweight and obese could benefit more from combined intensive exercise and diet rather than one or the other, says research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A US team looked at 399 people with knee osteoarthritis who were overweight and obese and aged over 54 years. Volunteers were split into three groups: diet and exercise; diet only or exercise only. Continue reading
Moderate exercise could guard against tendon disease
Tendon disease has been associated with exercise but a new study suggests that moderate exercise could actually keep tendons healthy.
Tendon disease is caused by damage to tendons at cellular level; published in Molecular Cell Research, this study found that moving around decreases a group of enzymes that degrade tendon tissue and increase tendon protein.
“The onset of tendon disease has always been associated with exercise; however this association has not been fully understood,” says lead researcher Dr Eleanor Jones. “We have shown that moderate exercise has a positive effect on tendons. Continue reading
Older working women are healthier than non-workers
Postmenopausal women who work tend be in better health than their unemployed contemporaries, says research from South Korea.
A team of scientists looked at records of 3,141 premenopausal Korean women and 2,115 postmenopausal women. Continue reading
Remission in rheumatoid arthritis harder for the overweight
Overweight and obese people are less likely to achieve successful remission in early rheumatoid arthritis compared to those of normal weight, says a study presented at the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism.
Scientists looked at 346 people who had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for less than 12 months. Those who were obese or overweight needed 2.4 times more anti-TNF therapy throughout the study than people of a normal weight, and still didn’t achieve similar remission outcomes. Continue reading
Statins may reduce risk of osteoarthritis
Regular use of statins – cholesterol-lowering drugs – may reduce the risk of developing osteoarthritis, according to research from Keele University.
Scientists looked at records from 16,609 people, aged 40 years and over and found that use of high-dose statins for at least two years was associated with a “significant reduction in clinical osteoarthritis, compared to non-statin users”.
About 20mg of statin a day was associated with around 60% reduced risk of osteoarthritis compared to non-statin users.
“This longitudinal study from a national clinical practice setting provides evidence that higher statin dose and larger statin dose increments were associated with a reduction in clinically defined osteoarthritis outcome,” say the authors in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
It is thought that the benefits could be because of the anti-inflammatory properties of statins.
