While out on a run recently, I passed a hiker on the trail. "My knees hurt just watching you," he told me, shaking his head. It was a variation on a comment I hear over and over: Keep running like that, and you'll give yourself arthritic knees.
The notion that running causes wear and tear on the joints that could spur arthritis makes some intuitive sense. But is it true?
No — if anything, running probably offers protection from osteoarthritis, says Paul Williams, an exercise scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who leads the National Runners' Health Study and the National Walkers' Health Study. These projects, which have enlisted almost 90,000 runners and walkers, have followed them since the studies began, in 1991 and 1997, respectively.