Arthritis and Activity
Many of us are led to believe that activities such as running, hiking, and weight training lead to arthritis. Is this so? Let’s take a quick dive into the recent research.
- A group of 3800 participants who have completed 9.5 marathons with an average age of 43.9 years old were asked a series of questions via a survey. What this survey found was that “number of years running, number of marathons completed, weekly mileage, and mean running pace were not significant predictors for arthritis.” (Hartwell, et al.)
- However, they noted having a history of prior injury or surgeries, advancing age, body mass index and family history were greater predictors of arthritis. (Hartwell, et al.)
- Burfield and Buhmann (2023) performed a systematic review (a compilation of data) to find if running volume (amount of running per week) has an association with knee arthritis prevalence. What they found was no difference between runners and controls (a control is someone who does not run) for the prevalence of arthritis.
- Timmins et all (2017) note “it is not possible to determine the role of running in knee osteoarthritis (OA). Moderate- to low-quality evidence suggests no association with OA diagnosis, a positive association with OA diagnosis, and a negative association with knee OA surgery.”
- Alentorn-Geli et al (2017) found that the “prevalence of hip and knee OA was 13.3% in competitive runners, 3.5% in recreational runners, and 10.2% in controls.” They found OA is this population set, and concluded “these results indicated that a more sedentary lifestyle or long exposure to high-volume and/or high-intensity running are both associated with hip and/or knee OA. However, it was not possible to determine whether these associations were causative or confounded by other risk factors, such as previous injury.”
- Coburn et al (2023) found “there is very low certainty evidence that running immediately decreases the thickness, volume, and relaxation times of patellofemoral and tibiofemoral cartilage. Hip cartilage changes are unknown, but knee changes are small and appear transient suggesting that a single bout of running is not detrimental to knee cartilage.”
What does this all mean? The toughest thing to determine about arthritis is what is the true cause of arthritis. Is it a combination of factors? Or is it simply the activity? Based on what we see from the above research, the research cannot determine an association or causative factor. Instead, they often question if something else is at play with regards to arthritis.
Some people seem to be more prone to arthritis, but why? The other risk factors that are often not addressed with arthritis is not current trends in diet, lifestyle, injuries, surgeries, body mass index or family history, but should be focused on the whole facet of an individuals wellness and health from day one to current age as all these compounding factors are what likely lead to arthritis and not just the activity that one chooses to engage in. When a physician states “Running/hiking/weight training is bad for your knees,” the return question should be “Show me the proof?” As we see above, the risk for arthritis is multifactorial (a bunch of possibilities) and not simply the activity.
