Intensive regime of exercise and diet prevents knee pain in adults with type 2 diabetes, highlights new research

Regular exercise and a healthy diet seems to reduce the short-term onset of knee pain for overweight adults with type 2 diabetes, says a study published in Arthritis Care and Research.
We know that old age and obesity are major risk factors for knee osteoarthritis, so researchers looked at if an intensive programme of weight loss combined with exercise could make a difference.
A total of 2,889 people with type 2 diabetes (aged 45 years to 76 years) who had no knee pain at the start of the study but were at high risk due to being obese were split into groups. Some received standard diabetes support and education. Others were in an intensive lifestyle intervention group, which limited total calories from fat to 30% and 10% of calories had to come from protein. The intervention group also had to do 175 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical exercise (brisk walking for most people). Knee pain was assessed at the end of one year and four years.
After one year, the intensive programme of diet and exercise was found to have a small but significant short-term protective effect against the development of knee pain.
“Among those we studied who were randomized to the diet and exercise intervention, it was found that they were 15% less likely to develop knee pain compared with their counterparts randomized to the control condition,” explains Dr Daniel White who led the study.
But after four years this difference decreased to 5% and was no longer significant. The decrease could be a consequence of people being unable to stick to the prescribed diet and exercise regimen for the full four years.
“These findings are very important,” Dr White says. “They demonstrate that the recommendations to exercise and diet do make a difference for preventing the development of knee pain among those who are at high risk.”

Click here to read the original research.

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