One of the questions I get asked a lot is "will running cause arthritis in my knees?"
I've usually answered by saying "as long as you don't do too much, wear the right shoes, have a good running style and don't carry too much weight, your knees should be okay."
A recent study has confirmed my response that running doesn't lead to osteoarthritis of the knees and showed that it may even help protect a person from developing the painful disease.
The research was presented at the last American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in Boston.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease affecting middle-age and older people. It is characterized by progressive damage to the joint cartilage, the cushioning material at the end of long bones. This damage then causes changes in the structures around the joint including fluid accumulation, bony overgrowth, and loosening and weakness of muscles and tendons, all of which may limit movement and cause pain and swelling.
Knee osteoarthritis is a common form of OA and is caused by cartilage breakdown in the knee joint. Factors that can increase the risk of knee osteoarthritis include: being overweight, age, injury or stress to the joints and having a family history.
Past research on a possible connection between running and knee OA has focused on elite male runners, who are not necessarily typical of middle-aged people just wanting to maintain a reasonable level of fitness. They typically have lower body weights and efficient running styles.
To find out if regular running would increase knee OA risk for the general population, the researchers used data from a large multi-centre study, the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI). Of the 2,683 participants, 56 percent were female, the mean age was 64.5 and the mean BMI was 28.6. Twenty-nine percent of the participants reported that they ran at some time in their lives.
Participants had knee X-rays, were given symptom assessments, and were asked to complete the Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire (LPAQ), identifying the top three most frequently performed physical activities (? 10 times in life) they performed at different age ranges throughout their life. Age ranges included 12-18, 19-34, 35-49, and 50 years or older.
At the four-year visit, knee X-rays were taken and then scored for evidence of osteoarthritis. The researchers also measured if participants had frequent knee pain at that visit. Researchers considered a participant to have symptomatic OA if they had at least one knee with both x-ray evidence and frequent knee pain.
After collecting all the data, the researchers reported that runners, regardless of the age when they ran, had a lower prevalence of knee pain, X-ray evidence and symptoms than non-runners.
They concluded that regular running, even at a non-elite level, not only does not increase the risk of developing knee OA but may protect against it.
This study does not address the question of whether or not running is harmful to people who have pre-existing knee OA. However, in people who do not have knee OA, 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.
Article Author: David Beard, Calico Calico Exercise Physiologist & Healthy Aging Expert