APRIL 12, 2011.
Doctors' New Advice for Joint Pain: Get Moving

Doctors increasingly are recommending physical activity to help osteoarthritis patients, overturning the more traditional medical advice for people to take it easy to protect their joints.

The new treatment approach comes as osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease once considered a problem of old age, has begun showing up in more middle-aged and young adults as a result of obesity and sports injuries. Studies have shown that weight loss, combined with exercises aimed at improving joint function and building up muscles that support the joints, can significantly improve patients' health and quality of life compared with medication alone.

"The most dangerous exercise you can do when you have arthritis is none," says Kate Lorig, director of the Patient Education Research Center at Stanford University. Since each pound of extra body weight adds the equivalent of four pounds to the knees, even a small loss of weight can cut in half the risk of knee osteoarthritis for women, who are at higher risk than men, studies show.

... But early onset osteoarthritis can develop within 10 years of an injury, so a teenager hurt at 15 could have the disease by age 25 or 30. "We are seeing younger and younger patients coming in with osteoarthritis because of more obesity and injuries," says Nicholas DiNubile, a Philadelphia-area orthopedic surgeon. Of particular concern, Dr. Nubile says is a sharp rise in injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in the knee, most commonly seen among female soccer players. Some 50% to 80% of players with an ACL tear go on to develop osteoarthritis


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703841904576257151484986480.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second

More hiking has certainly made my knees better.