“Stop running, it’ll ruin your knees…”

September 20, 2016   |   Evidence in Integrative Healthcare

Young woman running on red dirt trail, rear view, low section

For as long as we’ve been told, “don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stay that way”, we have also been told running is bad for our knees. It turns out this is not true as reported in a new study in the journal of Arthritis Care and Research from June 22, 2016 which demonstrated that runners do not have an increased risk of symptomatic arthritis in their knees.  The study was not designed to show cause and effect but speculation as to why this is true included the following: runners tend to be lean so there is less weight on the knees, there may be some additional mechanical benefit to the action of running that prevents arthritis from developing, the general lifestyles of runners tend to be healthier which could decrease their risk for disease like arthritis.