Is Exercise Effective in Reducing Knee Arthritis Pain?
For those experiencing pain, the idea of exercise can be daunting. The theory of improving strength around arthritic joints is that muscles work as shock absorbers, thus increasing strength will reduce joint stress. The good news about determining if exercise is helpful in reducing knee arthritis pain is that there have been numerous studies that have evaluated the issue. What have we learned? In a study reported in the Journal of Arthritis Care & Research in Jan. of 2010, researchers found that after a 9-month strengthening program using weight machines, improvements in both physical function and decreased knee pain and disability were reported. Another article published Feb., 2010 in Osteoarthritis Cartilage evaluated the benefit of doing hip strengthening exercises for reducing knee arthritis pain. In the study, 89 subjects participated in the 12 week program. The researchers found that although the strengthening program did not reduce knee stress loads, subjects did report decrease
