A key aspect of your natural health, exercise is a constant subject for medical studies. Here’s a new one to try on for size, and if your joints are sore, pay close attention. Researchers have found that physical activity alone improves arthritis symptoms, completely independent of what you eat.
This bit of health news is courtesy of Duke University. Often exercise and nutrition go hand in hand, but here, obese mice eating high-fat diets still had reduced arthritis symptoms if they exercised.
This suggests that excess weight alone isn’t what causes the aches and pains of osteoarthritis. The surprising thing here is that exercise, without substantial weight loss, can be beneficial to the joints. This isn’t ideal of course, but it’s solid proof that exercise works for arthritis.
If the results are proven in people, it could have a huge impact. One in five U.S. adults has arthritis, and millions more suffer undiagnosed joint pain. Many are tied to obesity and inactivity, so the new study sought to find out if a high-fat diet induces knee osteoarthritis, and then whether exercise could protect it.
Mice fed high-fat food gained weight rapidly, processed sugar poorly and had much higher levels of inflammation linked with arthritis. Yet, when they did wheel workouts, many of the harmful effects diminished. Blood sugar tolerance improved, while the inflammatory response was disrupted, easing the development of arthritis.
In short, exercise made arthritis joints feel better. The fat cells still produced inflammatory molecules associated with arthritis, but they lost their punch because they could not organize into a force. It seems that exercise may impair the process of inflammation.
If you are overweight or obese, exercise. Don’t let pain be a barrier to being physically active. If you overcome the pain, it will get better. That is the message to take away from this study. Work with your physician or a physiotherapist to come up with an exercise routine that’s works for you.
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