Bones & Jointspreliminary · human data
Exercise does not wear out arthritic knees, blood markers suggest
Across 12 randomised trials, exercise programmes lowered cartilage and inflammation markers in 30% of comparisons and left most of the rest unchanged. Nothing suggested training accelerates the joint damage behind osteoarthritis.
For you: If knee arthritis makes you cautious about training, this is a reason to think exercise is not grinding down your cartilage.
What it shows: Reassuring rather than definitive: results pooled from 12 trials in people at risk of or with knee osteoarthritis, and the authors rated the overall evidence as low quality because so few trials exist. It shows exercise is not harming cartilage markers, not that it repairs joints.Meta-analysis · Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken)