Running may protect against osteoarthritis of the knee – not cause it
Regular running does not raise the risk of knee osteoarthritis and may in fact help protect against it, says new research presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in Boston, US.
Previous work suggested that regular running may contribute to osteoarthritis of the knee, but the results were largely based on professional male runners, so may not apply to everyday people.
So a research team looked at 2,683 people (average age 64.5 years) and assessed them for symptoms of osteoarthritis, conducted knee X-rays and asked them to fill out a questionnaire that assessed how much exercise they did at four different age ranges in their life: 12–18 years, 19–34 years, 35–49 years and 50 or older.
Two years later knee X-rays were done again to see if the volunteers had radiographic knee osteoarthritis, which is when there is no pain but the condition shows on X-rays. They were also assessed for knee pain. If they had regular pain in one knee as well as radiographic knee osteoarthritis, they were classed as having symptomatic osteoarthritis. Anyone who had a complete knee replacement was categorised as having frequent knee pain, radiographic knee osteoarthritis and symptomatic osteoarthritis.
Results
People who ran regularly, no matter what their age, were less likely to experience frequent knee pain, radiographic knee osteoarthritis and symptomatic osteoarthritis, than those who did not run regularly.
Of participants who ran at any point in their lives, 22.8% experienced symptomatic osteoarthritis, compared with 29.8% of non-runners. And people with a lower body mass index were more likely to run regularly.
These results suggest that regular running does not raise the risk of knee osteoarthritis and may actually protect against the disease. But the study does not show if regular running may cause harm to those who already have knee osteoarthritis. Dr Grace Hsiao-Wei Lo, who led the work, comments:
“However, in people who do not have knee osteoarthritis, there is no reason to restrict participation in habitual running at any time in life from the perspective that it does not appear to be harmful to the knee joint.”
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Image credit: Robert S. Donovan
