Running Lowers Inflammation in Knees?

Want to avoid a knee replacement? 

New research has come to some counter intuitive conclusions. You might want to dust off your running shoes if you are young and healthy but have given it up over worries that you were increasing your risk for knee replacment surgery. Read on to learn more.

The soreness runners experience after a workout is usually passed off as a price paid for a healthy heart. But new research from Brigham Young University found that instead of increasing, inflammation actually goes down in knee joints after running.

“It flies in the face of intuition,” said study coauthor Matt Seeley. “This idea that long-distance running is bad for your knees might be a myth.”

Seeley and his colleagues measured inflammation markers in the knee joint fluid of healthy men and women aged 18-35, both before and after running.

They found that the concentration of two specific markers, two cytokines named GM-CSF and IL-15, decreased in the synovial fluid in the subjects after 30 minutes of running. When the same fluids were extracted before and after situations that didn’t involve running, the levels of inflammation markers were similar.

“What we now know is that for young, healthy individuals, exercise creates an anti-inflammatory environment that may be beneficial in terms of long-term joint health,” said study lead author Robert Hyldahl.

Hyldahl said the study results indicate that exercise may help delay the onset of degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis.

Maybe cyclic movement actually lubricates and benefits your knee and it's static positions that create problems? Let's keep looking at the research. 

Don't Depend on Surgery to Save You! Rescue Your Own Knee With Diet and Lifestyle changes.