Dietary fibre can help prevent knee pain – new research

Adding fibre to diets could reduce the chances of developing chronic knee pain, according to an exciting new study published in Arthritis Care & Research.

A team from the US looked at 4,796 men and women aged 45–79 years with or at risk of knee osteoarthritis. They estimated fibre levels using a food frequency questionnaire at the start of the study and assessed pain patterns and dietary habits during yearly follow-ups for eight years.

Findings

• 9% of the volunteers had knee replacements;
• 35% had no knee pain;
• 38% had mild knee pain;
• 21% had moderate pain;
• 6% had severe pain.

But the higher a person’s dietary fibre intake, the lower their chances were of being included in the moderate or severe pain groups; there was a similar trend for people eating grain fibre.

“Our findings suggest that high dietary total or grain fibre, particularly in the recommended daily fibre average intake of 25g per day, was associated with lower risks of belonging to moderate and severe knee pain development patterns over time,” the researchers comment.

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