Warning for middle aged runners: your knees may not be as OK as you think
Steve Miller Reporting
WBBM Newsradio 780
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Radiologists meeting here in Chicago this week have some advice for middle-aged runners and joggers: Don't overdo it - or you face a greater risk of osteo-arthritis.
Results of a study out this morning by a group of researchers here at the Radiological Society of North America meeting may not be such welcome news to runners.
Especially runners who are in their 40s or 50s - whose knees seem to be in fine shape.
"There is a certain amount of physical activity which may be harmful."
Dr. Thomas Link of the University of California-San Francisco is a co-author of the study, and he says he's used to seeing cartilage damage in young people who are extremely active in sports.
"And I was really surprised that also these normal people who are not high-level athletes also had changes according to their physical activity levels, and that there was an increasing number of cartilage lesions."
Dr. Link says it's not clear yet how much running is too much.
"Doing extreme bicycle tours, doing extreme running - I think all the extremes may be harmful for the cartilage and also for the joint itself."
Middle-aged people who get satisfaction out of hard exercise may not welcome Dr. Link's study.
"You're correct, but I think extremes should be really avoided at all levels. We have to keep in mind that cartilage is a tissue which does not regenerate."
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