Run for your knees

The eternal question of runners, "Do not destroy the whole race my lap?" Existing studies lead to the opposite conclusion: no more runners, and maybe even less prone to osteoarthritis than those who do not runs.

Osteoarthritis of the knee - a disease that leads to loss of mobility in the knee. In varying degrees, suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee for about a quarter of elderly people on Earth.

research is usually imperfect. When you select a group of runners always have a certain criterion probability that exactly these athletes are not prone to knee injuries while running. In view of this special interest is the study conducted by a group of scientists and Baylor College of Medicine submitted at last year's meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

The study involved 2439 people. Their average age - 65 years, 28% of them once ran. It is important, as the authors note that the study participants were local residents, and not some kind of special group of runners. Data were obtained from regular examinations, X-rays and so on.

The participants completed a questionnaire that included a list of the three most common physical activities at different stages of life (12-18, 19-34, 35-49, after 50 years). The researchers then tried to establish a connection marks about jogging at any stage of life and the subsequent development of osteoarthritis of the knee.

The results were quite interesting. People jogging in youth, in old age, or lifelong, were 16-29% less likely to develop osteoarthritis than nebeguny. Some results, however, were caused by the fact that athletes tend to weigh less, which is an advantage in this case. However, even when this amendment was introduced, the runners still won.

By the way, the data published in the past year have shown that with intensive development of osteoarthritis were associated knee injury. This is consistent with earlier studies which suggest that the increased risk of osteoarthritis in the knees former athletes is largely explained by the injuries.

In other words, if you want to keep your knees, beware greater dislocation than shock.