Regular running at any age does not ruin your knees and may prevent the development of osteoarthritis in the knees, according to new research presented at the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting.
Through collection of the participants’ reports of symptomatic pain and collection knee x-ray information, researchers found that nearly 23 percent of participants who had been a runner at some point had symptoms of knee osteoarthritis, while 30 percent of non-runners showed evidence of knee osteoarthritis.
“Non-elite running at any time in life does not appear detrimental, and may be protective” in regards to developing knee osteoarthritis, the researchers concluded.
Baylor College of Medicine researchers reviewed data on 2,683 participants as part of the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Eight years after the long-term study began, the participants provided updates on activities during four stages of life for researchers to determine if they were runners. If running was reported as one of their main activities during one of the period, they were classified as a runner.
This study adds to a growing body of evidence against the belief that running can ruin your knees. Last March, researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division found that long-distance runners had a lower risk of developing osteoarthritis and receiving hip replacements.
