Alice Goodman
American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual 2014 Meeting
BOSTON — Despite concern that running may be harmful to the knee joint, recreational running at any age does not appear to contribute to the development of osteoarthritis, and might even be protective, according to the results of a new study.
“In people who do not have knee osteoarthritis, there is no reason to restrict participation in habitual running at any time in life for fear that it will be harmful to the knee joint,” said Grace Hsiao-Wei Lo, MD, from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She emphasized that the study does not apply to people who already have knee osteoarthritis.
“There has been concern that perhaps the repetitive impact of running may contribute to knee osteoarthritis, but there are few data,” said Robert McLean, MD, from the Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
“This study provides a snapshot of people who entered the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) and looked back at their life and their exposure to running. This is one of the first studies to look at this question in a population-based study, and it helps us understand that this high-impact activity does not increase the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis,” he explained. Reviewed and posted, Dr. Russell
