Running may not cause osteoarthritis in knees

It’s common to hear that running can be a fast route to knee problems and arthritis later in life, but recent research doesn’t seem to support the claims.

Recent studies have found that running may not be as bad for your knees as previously believed and a new paper from the College of Medicine has added to that pool of work with similar findings.

The recent study involved 2,683 participants with an average age of 64. They were all given x-rays of their knees two years apart and asked about if they had ever experienced any knee pain or had osteoarthritis in their knees. Participants were also asked which three activities they were most involved in at four different periods during their life. If they answered running, they were considered, in the study, as a runner at that point in their life.

The arthritis and knee pain findings were compared with activities. It was found that those who had at some point been an active runner were significantly less likely to have developed osteoarthritis in their knees. Just shy of 23 per cent of runners did, while nearly 30 per cent of non-runners developed they knee ailment.

The researchers do point out that their study does not mean that running is good for your knees, especially if you already have some sort of arthritis or knee pain, but that it seems to be less damaging that other activities. They don’t suggest running to help ease any sort of knee pain and note those areas do need more research.