There has been an article on the prevalence of osteoarthritis recently
by I.J. Wallace and colleagues [1]: "Knee osteoarthritis has doubled in prevalence since the mid-20th
century". Among the authors is also David T. Felson,
whom I've heard several times during the past decade on osteoarthritis at various
meetings. As rheumatologists we are often contacted by patients and mostly our
advice is to reduce weight, exercise moderately, and see, that the diet is rich
in beta-carotene, vitamin C and E. So research on the prevalence of
osteoarthritis and knowing more about factors are very much warranted.
The authors analyzed long-term trends in knee OA prevalence “using
cadaver-derived skeletons of people aged ≥50 y whose BMI at death was documented and who lived
during the early industrial era (1800s to early 1900s; n = 1,581) and the
modern postindustrial era (late 1900s to early 2000s; n = 819).” They also
looked at “archeologically derived skeletons of prehistoric hunter-gatherers
and early farmers (6000–300 B.P.; n = 176).”
The authors concluded: “Overall, knee OA prevalence was found to be 16%
among the postindustrial sample but only 6% and 8% among the early industrial
and prehistoric samples, respectively. After controlling for age, BMI, and
other variables, knee OA prevalence was 2.1-fold higher (95% confidence
interval, 1.5–3.1) in the postindustrial sample than in the early industrial
sample.” The authors think “that increases in longevity and BMI are
insufficient to explain the approximate doubling of knee OA prevalence”.
Of course, more research on additional independent risk factors is
necessary. But let me try an educated guess. Changes in diet and physical
activity are obvious. Preventive measures might be:
·
Changing from sedentary to a more active lifestyle
·
Reducing supernutrition
·
Reducing processed foods
·
Increasing veggies and herbs
·
Reducing dairy and meats
One would have to wait for results in research about how effective
these measures could be. But as you wouldn’t harm yourself with these measures, you
could start right away.
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