Osteoarthritis: drink milk to prevent joint wear and tear

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MunichSooner or later it hits everyone: Joint wear. The cartilage loss cannot be reversed. At least the progress can be delayed. Adding a glass of milk a day to the menu could help - at least for women.

"Milk consumption plays an important role in bone health," explains study author Dr. Bing Lu from Brigham & Woman’s Hospital in Boston, USA. This made the researchers curious about a possible joint protective effect of dairy products. For their investigation, they recruited 888 men and 1260 women with the beginning of joint wear in the knee. To do this, the researchers recorded the subjects' eating habits. They also used x-rays to examine the severity of the osteoarthritis and its progression at the start of the study and repeatedly after 12, 24, 36 and 48 months.

Effect only with low-fat milk

The evaluation showed that the more milk the women consumed, the slower their knee osteoarthritis progressed. “This suggests that women who drink milk regularly can delay joint wear,” explains Lu. However, this only applies to the consumption of fat-free and low-fat milk. "A high fat saturation could even accelerate osteoarthritis," Lu told . At least the breakdown of cartilage tissue in the knee appeared to be progressing faster in women who nibbled on cheese regularly. In contrast, the consumption of yoghurt had neither a positive nor a negative influence on the joints.

Milk does not help men

Men, on the other hand, could not influence their joint health with their milk consumption. The researchers do not yet know why this is the case. However, there has been evidence for a long time that the joints of men and women age differently, both in terms of occurrence, frequency and severity of joint wear. According to the Robert Koch Institute, for example, around a third of women but only a quarter of men between 45 and 65 years of age stated in a survey that they had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. "Studies indicate that the cartilage layer is generally less thick in women than in men," says Lu, explaining the difference.

Lu and his colleagues want to deepen the connection between osteoarthritis and milk consumption in further studies. Until then, the researcher recommends: "Women should drink more than one glass of milk a day" - as low in fat as possible, of course. (lh)

Source: Bing Lu et al. Milk consumption and progression of medial tibiofemoral knee osteoarthritis: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Arthritis Care & Research, 2014; DOI: 10.1002 / acr.22297

Tags:  therapies diet stress 

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