Although knee injuries can raise the risk of developing knee arthritis, the wear and tear of regular exercise over a lifetime does not set the stage for the debilitating condition.
This is important as health experts recommend regular physical activity to help ward off serious conditions like heart disease and diabetes. At the same time, however, some have worried that high activity levels may wear on joints and boost the risk of arthritis later in life.
The study does not support the suggestion that increased use of the knee joint through moderate sporting and exercise participation wears out the joint and therefore increases the risk of knee osteoarthritis.
The researchers studied the relationship between low and moderate exercise levels and knee osteoarthritis. Each of 216 patients who reported onset of arthritis after age 40, with knee pain, swelling or stiffness, was matched to four people without the condition. The average age of participants was 57.
The investigators found that having a previous knee injury was the only factor that strongly influenced the risk of knee arthritis.
These individuals had an eight-times greater risk of the condition, compared with those with no prior knee injuries.
Annals of Rheumatic Diseases August 2001;60:756-764
Having been a runner since 1968, I have had people tell me for the last thirty years that running will cause arthritis in the knees. This appears to be another myth that science does not support.
However, knee problems are quite common and many people do have surgery on their knees.
If you find yourself in this boat, you should be very cautious about selecting your exercise program as a previous knee injury will put you at high risk of developing arthritis in your knee.
Fortunately there is an answer.
NST is a light form of massage that is the most amazing form of therapy I have ever seen. It is not unusual for a two minute NST session to relieve years of chronic knee pain. We have prevented knee and shoulder surgeries on many dozens of patients with NST.
If you do have a knee or shoulder problem, please do yourself a favor and have an NST therapist take care of you first.
If you are a health care practitioner you can consider coming to our Chicago training which is limited to 40 participants.
Several weeks ago, Jeffery, from our office, traumatized his knees severely in a bicycle accident. I treated him on several occasions with the NST Knee Procedure and the pain he had that required him to use a cane was gone. Total time for the procedures? About 90 seconds. Ideally it would have been best for him to have the full 45 minute NST treatment but I needed to "squeeze him in" a busy practice day and that was all I had time for. Nevertheless it worked quite well. It is just absolutely amazing to think that such a simple quick gentle flick on certain areas of the body will produce such profound healing changes. Amazing. It is a shame that more people don't use this BEFORE they go in for knee surgery or even use glucosamine to treat knee problems. We have been able to prevent many dozens of people from having knee surgery with this procedure and I would encourage you to consider this prior to any non reversible surgical intervention.