Does Running Cause Knee Osteoarthritis?

A look at the relationship between running and osteoarthritis in knees.
I am going to use this blog to summarise a study done by Eliza F. Chakravarty, MD et. al., which was done in order to find out if there is an increased chance of getting osteoarthritis of the knee joint due to long distance running. (More than 300 minutes per week)

The experiment was set up as follows.

45 long distance runners and 53 nonrunners were studied. The experiment started in 1984 with a group who were aged from 50 to 72 years of age with an average age of 58. The study went on for 18 years, ending in 2002.

The initial x-rays showed that 6.7% of the runners had evidence of osteoarthritis (OA), while none of the non-runners showed any signs of OA.

Here is a description of the testing done, “Bilateral anteroposterior weight-bearing radiographs of the knees were taken in 1984, 1986, 1989, 1993, 1996, and 2002”.

At the end of the study, 1 of the 51 runners had died, and 3 of the 62 nonrunners had died. (A stat that is interesting by itself).
The following infographic puts the study into perspective.

So, all knees deteriorated with the aging process. However, there was a dramatic increase in knee OA among non runners as opposed to runners. Unless there is an underlying knee injury, or obesity becomes a factor, or you allow low muscle tone to take place in the muscles that support the knees, you are better off running regularly.

That’s awesome news for us runners. Keep moving and don’t forget, movement is medicine.

See you on the road soon.

Mike Roscoe.
Kinesiologist.