Osteoarthritis and Obesity: lose weight against knee osteoarthritis

A study presented at the annual meeting of the “Radiological Society of North America” shows that obese people who lose a lot of weight can significantly slow down the degeneration of cartilage of their knee.
Obesity is indeed a major risk factor for osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that affects more than a third of adults over age 60, the researchers of the “Center for Disease Control and Prevention.”

The knee joint is the area most frequently affected by this disease which progresses in many affected person, until the total knee replacement becomes necessary.
Dr Gersing of the University of California and colleagues studied the relationship between different levels of weight loss and the progression of the degeneration of knee cartilage among 506 overweight and obese patients.

Patients had either mild to moderate osteoarthritis symptoms is a risk for the disease. They were divided into three groups: a control group that did not lose weight, a second group that has lost a little weight, and a third group which lost more than 10 percent of body weight. The researchers then used the MRI to quantify osteoarthritis of the knees of the study participants.

analysis of differences in the quality of the cartilage between the three groups over a period of four years, revealed the evidence of the protective effect against cartilage degeneration due to loss of weight and the weight grandeperte is most beneficial.

Dr. Gersing says of the important weight loss “not only that, it slows the degeneration of the knee joints, but it also reduces the risk of developing osteoarthritis.”

The researchers plan to study the future role of diabetes, which is closely linked to obesity, in the degeneration of cartilage. They also plan to follow up these groups of patients over a period of eight years and possibly take that weight gain could have the effects on the articulation of the said patient knees.