Running won't damage your knees?
Posted , 10 users are following.
This is an interesting one! Has anyone else seen in the newspaper today that experts say 'running won't damage the knees'? And there is no link between running and osteoarthritis. But runners place 8 times their bodyweight on each step. They reckon this might strengthen cartilage. I'm trying to get my head round this, when it's reckoned that more obese people get osteoarthritis - I'm struggling to see the logic here, how running can strengthen cartilage but obesity wears it away. Any thoughts?
0 likes, 40 replies
Oldfatguy1 chris00938
Posted
From the outset this sounds like a build up to selling a high proved supplement. I've never talked to a therapist or Dr that told me running was good for the knees.
In the list of best to worst, swimming is always 1st ( unfortunately I never liked water sports) and stuff like jumping and high impact stuff is the worst. Based on that info, running is right up there. My PT runs once a week and she runs 8 to 8.5 miles. I asked her how she could get by with the once weekly and she said for her it was a balance of doing the right thing for her body.
Oldfatguy1
Posted
chris00938 Oldfatguy1
Posted
These things often are funded by those who sell supplements Oldfatgoy - you're right. But yes, it's hard to imagine how pounding a pavement can be good for knees. So many more are doing it these days too. We all try to do the best for our bodes, no doubt, and all we can do is read lots of views and then do what makes sense to us personally. But I think a lot of younger people don't do this - it doesn't occur to them to research what extreme activities they're doing. Sadly. Someone I know does 'iron man' contests and has pushed his young son into training for them as well. His son doesn't even want to do it, but the father thinks that marathons etc. are good for him!
jan01779 chris00938
Posted
Yes they are and often not available on prescription and often needed in high doses encouraging people to pay high prices.
Runners often told to use glucosamine a supplement for osteoarthritis. However it doesn't work in people with RA I'm told or on certain medication so.my GO told me.
Omega 3 is meant to. be good for all arthritis but not Cod Liver oil because nowadays it contains dioxin toxoids which are not good for joints in OA but especially RA. It's a mind field.
Personally I believe in a balanced diet and minimal processed food. 3
I like you read and make my own mind up. Running has aerobic benefits but the impact cant be good on joints if taken to the extreme.
Never liked running so having a TKR will not matter but I will miss bopping in the dance floor at parties 😂😂. Not exactly pogo but you know what I mean.
Oldfatguy1 chris00938
Posted
As the old saying goes, karma is a b***h. Old dad better watch out when the kid rebels.
I never had tobworrybabout that aspect, I was too lazy to push my kids into regimes like that. As long As they were outside, running and playing and not in front of the tv all the time I figured they were fine. Didn't do too bad of a job staying out of their way and letting their mother give them a .oral compass and direction. I was just the guy that left Monday morning with a suitcase and came to.e Friday with dirty clothes and tired. All 4 with degrees , several with masters, one retired after 30 years as Corp CEO and started another company. One thing I learned early in what has now been 59 years of marriage(as of this past wednesday), if you can't do the job stay out of the way of the one who can.
marilyn10235 Oldfatguy1
Posted
Never, ever push your kids to fulfill your own dreams! So wrong in so many ways.
Our kids find their own path. We can guide but we should never push!
martinarvelo Oldfatguy1
Posted
53 years in December, OFG . . we shall never catch you up of course! It doesn't really seem that long . . . . .
chris00938 Oldfatguy1
Posted
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
My problems with the left knee started after training for a 6k 'fun run' in the 80s! Managed to do the run & finished middle of the pack, but never ran again after my knee swelled the next Day!
Maybe with the running shoes they have now it's a little less impact on the knees but I don't really see how they can say it does no damage!
TBH I think there is a lot of 'cod science' out there, which the media picks up & takes certain bits out of context!? If you look at the way the humble egg was demonised some years back as full of cholesterol & now they are saying once again they (eggs) are good for us!
I think the answer probably is somewhere in the middle, i.e. Proper training, proper equipment & being sensible about it!!??
As someone said to me the other day, we were told to be active, be fit, do sport & look where we are, crippled up with arthritis & having new joints! If I look at some of the people I used to see regularly, running,quite a percentage are now struggling with knee problems!
I can deffo see being over weight as having a huge impact on our knees, but I really think that running as a high impact activity also has a huge impact on our knees no matter our weight?!
???????
Good debate again Chris.
Marilyn
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chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
Thanks Marilyn - as long as I'm not driving you nuts with the subjects I bring up LOL!
My sport was swimming and I have been asked if breastroke may have contributed to the knee problem, because of the twisting. I thought at the time I was asked, that it hadn't but thinking about it now, with the condition of hypermobility (which strangely enough, a higher percentage of swimmers do have), it possibly DOES stretch ligaments more than they should be stretched, so they don't support the knees so well...... Mmmmmm....... who knows LOL!
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
The thing is, Chris, we have all lived a life! We've all done things we shouldn't have, lifted too heavy weights, done sport of whatever type, as a kid I used to climb up onto our shed & jump off!! Why??? Watt can I say I was always a tomboy, in trees, playing football. In fact my cousin was one of the 1st girls to play football in a school team, alongside the boys. Quite anarchic stuff in the early 60s!
I really don't think it is any one thing but a combination of all the things we have done!
I have always participated in whatever sport or exercise regime with all my heart! I used to get up 10 mins early to do a workout before work!! (Mr Motivator's 10 minute workout!) Lol
I know the injury in my left knee was due to running or exacerbated by!! Can you call that a link, in scientific terms NO!!
A proper study would include a percentage of dedicated athletes, as well as 'keep fitters'.
Makes you think though!!
Marilyn
X.
chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
Yes, that takes me back to those squats I was doing with 144 lb LOL! I used to get up early before school to go and train in the pool and then go straight from school for more training, and there was a LOT of weight training involved, so maybe that played it's part too. It does all make you think. You just brought back memories of Jane Fonda's workout LOL!
There seems to be a genetic aspect to it too. But having said that, I don't remember either of my parents having a problem with knees! That's a good question - those with TKR's - did your parents have knee problems too???????? If it's genetic, you'd expect a percentage to see it in their families.
marilyn10235 chris00938
Posted
Yep my Mum was treated, when she was 20, for tubucular knee. Had to go to a sanitorium in Lowestoft. She was put in traction to pull the joint apart, which took weeks, slept on a bed on a roofed balcony, ALL WEATHERS! With just a tarp to cover the bedclothes from rain & snow!! Once the joint was apart they then said sorry there is NO tuberculosis there! They then brought her into the ward, she spent weeks with the wrights being gradually reduced to sit the joint back & wasgben found to have adhesions which they took her into theatre to stretch. They didn't want to break them!
It was never found what was wrong wit the knee & she never followed it up in later years! She walked with a limp for the rat of her life & had to have a new hip at 66! My grandfather was told he had grounds to sue for wrongful diagnosis but declined as he said they had done their best. It was HIS choice as she was under 21!!
So in answer yes knee problems may be inherited from my Mum!
Also my Granddaughter also has a sore knee?? Plus my eldest son has a hip deformation called FAI. He needs new hips but at 44 us too young!! That old chestnut!!
Marilyn
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chris00938 marilyn10235
Posted
Those days of TB! My Mum told me she had TB in her leg bone and had a piece taken out and a dog's bone put in but it still sounds weird to me, but maybe that's what they did then! But nothing to do with her knees. Sounds like there might be a family thing with yours then, and maybe your son's impingement is related... You have to wonder! I hope the pain isn't horrendous!
jan01779 chris00938
Posted
My mother had osteoarthritis but also cardiac problems so no TKR she died if a stroke. Hence I've always tried to keep fit both aerobically and anaerobically.
RA diagnosed at 23 years old but still did low impact gyms stuff until my mid thirties when erosion set in. Always cycled and done workouts at home unless a flare. I'm pretty healthy apart from my arthritis but the side effects of the meds could catch up with me so you have to live for now in my book 😂
So who knows if OA inherited but I'm guessing it more likely to be secondary to RA. My great grandad on mum's side had arthritis badly but they wouldn't have known what type then .Modern medicine is marvellous and I'm eternally greatful for it and for my new left knee.
I think in the future stem cell research could come up with something for arthritis it's an amazing thing in lots of specialities including Opthalmology which I worth in and am amazed at the progressive treatments. Injections for Macular Degeneration slow progression but now there's early stage research into topical drop treatment needs clinical trials in humans but could save a lot of money and staffing resources.
Whoops sorry gone off track again lol. I suppose my point is we have got to the stage of needing a new knee so cause is kinda not relevant and we get on with it!
Well Chris what's the next thread ??😊😊
Jan x
jan01779
Posted
chris00938 jan01779
Posted
I remember reading stuff about macular degeneration - there is now a single injection, rather than a series, isn't there? I THINK sometime back I read that they were doing a single one at Nottingham. But they are making all sorts of progress with all sorts of conditions now, which has to be good!
RA has got to have been difficult to live with - it affects people so young, doesn't it. Yes, you're right though - we have to get on with what happens to us!
Next thread - let me think about that one:-))))