Hop against osteoarthritis

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MunichJoint wear is a widespread disease. If you want to prevent it, you should exercise. Now it has been shown that jumping does not damage the health of the cartilage, but can even be beneficial.

It has long been known that an active lifestyle and exercise can help keep joint wear and tear at bay. Jarmo Koli from Suomen Akatemia and his colleagues measured the effect of particularly intensive training units for a year. “Above all, we had aerobics and step aerobics afterwards,” Koli explains to With the latter, you train with the help of benches, on which the athletes climb and descend in rapid succession. For the study, the researchers continuously raised the quilting benches until they were about eight inches high after three months.

80 women between the ages of 50 and 65 took part in the study. They already suffered from mild knee osteoarthritis and had knee pain almost every day. The women were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One took part in intensive movement training under supervision three times a week for twelve months. The rest served as a control group.

Fractures in the cartilage

Using various methods, including magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers tracked the changes in the cartilage tissue.

An important indicator of the condition of the joint was the amount of free fluid in the knee. "If there is a lot of it, it means that the osteoarthritis is very advanced," says Koli. The reason for this are broken cartilage structures that release their tissue water into the environment. "If these fractures in the cartilage could be prevented, stopped or even improved, it would slow down the degenerative process," says the researcher.

Overall, the intensive training had a positive effect - both the cartilage quality and the physical function were improved - by at least seven percent compared to the comparison group. “The women were also fitter overall,” explains the Finn.

Hopping helps

The result is astonishing, since bouncing loads but also loads that are accompanied by sudden changes of direction have so far been considered more likely to promote osteoarthritis. “But there is no scientific evidence for this statement,” the researchers write. Koli says: "Obviously, this form of movement is well tolerated when osteoarthritis begins, provided that training is carried out with a slow increase in intensity." (Lh)

Source: Jarmo Koli, et al. Effect of Exercise on Patellar Cartilage in Women with Mild Knee Osteoarthritis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2015; 1 DOI: 10.1249 / MSS.0000000000000629

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