KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS and RUNNERS

The aging runner is alive and well here in the Mt. Washington Valley and all over the world.  Knees are often a source of discussion amongst runners and there are a lot of misconceptions in the community at large. 

Studies have shown that running itself, does not cause or worsen knee arthritis particularly if you are a recreational runner.  Recreational runners tend to have lower instances of knee OA than that of their sedentary counterparts.  

There are other co-morbidities that may increase the chances of OA - such as meniscus surgery, ACL reconstruction and a few others.  

Running and walking over a period of time has a similar accumulative load on the knee and the force of running spreads out the compressive forces through the knee.   Not what you would think, right?

So that being said - if you are a runner who has been slowed down or stopped due to a knee arthritis diagnosis - you may be able to run with a few adjustments and adding some other activities into your program. 

I often hear about masters runners who have an initial irritation to the knee, seek out imaging, are told they have knee OA and then told to stop running. Yes, there may be a brief period where stopping is necessary to allow for inflammation to decrease but then there is an opportunity to get back to running, but there needs to be a plan. The success of this is dependent on a few individual factors.

If you stop running, it will be harder to get back into it so let’s work together to keep this aging population running!  It’s a work in progress always, not a magic bullet but it can be still rewarding and fruitful.  

Miller et al. Med Sci Sports Exec 2014.; Lo et al. Clin Rheumatol 2018; Chris Johnson Course