The new study disproves the current view that daily running helps to "wear out" knee joints and increases the risk of osteoarthritis (arthrosis).

Scientists claim that in fact running prevents this disease.

A research team from the College of Medicine Baylor (Houston, Texas), led by Dr. Grace Hsiao-Wei Lo (Grace Hsiao-Wei Lo) presented the results of their work at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, which was held in Boston.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease characterized by destruction of the cartilaginous tissue and impaired motor function. Most often, osteoarthritis affects the knee and hip joints. In the US, the number of patients with arthrosis is estimated at 27 million people. They are mostly elderly and middle-aged people.

Although the cause of osteoarthritis is not always clear, some researchers have argued that regular running is associated with this disease. But the authors of the last work reasonably notice that it was about professional athletes, so the results can not be transferred to the general population.

There is one more important fact. People who regularly run have a smaller body mass index. This means that their joints are not as heavily overloaded as millions of hypodynamic people with excess weight.

Summarizing all of the above, Dr. Hsiao-Wei Lo and her colleagues conducted their own research, during which they tried to better understand the relationship between regular running and risk of osteoarthritis of the knee joints.

Analysis of the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

For their work, the team analyzed a group of 2,683 participants whose average age was 64.5 years. All of them took part in a study called Osteoarthritis Initiative. 56% of them are women with an average body mass index of 28.6.

At the time of the study, participants were asked to evaluate the severity of OA symptoms and undergo an X-ray examination. They also filled out the physical activity questionnaire Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire. This questionnaire determined the average physical activity of the patient at the age of 12-18, 19-34, 35-49 years and after 50.

X-ray examination of knee joints was repeated 2 years after the start of the study to evaluate the progression of osteoarthritis of the knee joints using the Kellgren-Lawrence scale. Researchers talked about ROA, if the degree of change by Kellgren-Lawrence was II and above.

In addition, doctors evaluated the pain of each participant. If, along with the X-ray signs of OA, patients complained of regular knee pain, they were enrolled in a group of symptomatic osteoarthritis (SOA). Patients who suffered prosthetic knee joints were automatically enrolled in the SOA group.

Regular running at any age does not harm the knee joints.

The results of the analysis showed that participants who are used to running (regardless of the age at which they ran) have a lower risk of developing ROA and symptomatic osteoarthritis compared to those who do not run. Among runners at a certain point in their lives, 22.8% developed osteoarthritis, and in the control group, 29.8%.

Scientists also confirmed that people with a low body mass index are more likely to run and have a lower risk of knee OA.

According to the findings of the researchers, these results suggest that regular running not only does not increase the risk of arthrosis of the knee joints, but also contributes to the prevention of this disease in the general population. Nevertheless, the scientists did not answer the question of whether regular running can harm people with arthrosis already present in the knee joints.

Dr.

Hsiao-Wei Lo commented: "For people who do not have osteoarthritis of the knee joints, there is no reason to refuse regular running at any time in life because of the fear of this disease".

Recall that similar results were published last year by medical publication Medical News Today. Then the scientists found that moderate physical activity for 150 minutes a week does not increase the risk of knee osteoarthritis in elderly and middle-aged people.

medbe. en.