This summary of a Cochrane review presents what we know from research about the effect of exercise on osteoarthritis (OA).
The review shows that, on average, in people with OA, exercise results in a modest reduction in pain and a modest improvement in physical function.
What is OA of the knee and what is exercise?
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of the joints, such as your knee. When your knee loses cartilage, the bone grows to try and repair the damage. Instead of making things better, however, the bone grows abnormally and makes things worse. For example, the bone can become misshapen and make the joint painful and unstable.
Doctors used to think that osteoarthritis was caused by wear and tear on the cartilage. However, it's now thought that osteoarthritis is a disease of the whole joint.
OA is one of the most common forms of arthritis and affects men and women equally. OA is one of the main causes of disability as people grow older.
Exercise can be any activity that enhances or maintains muscle strength, physical fitness and overall health. People exercise for many different reasons including weight loss, strengthening muscles and to relieve the symptoms of OA.
Best estimate of what happens to people with OA who exercise:
In the short term, a supervised exercise program:
Reduces knee pain by 1 point on a scale of 0 to 20; and
Improves knee function by 3 points on a scale of 0 to 68.