Many experts believe that exercise is one of the best ways to treat the pain and inflammation of osteoarthritis. Exercise has long been considered a highly effective treatment for joint conditions like osteoarthritis. But fewer than half of patients are prescribed it.
Being sedentary and struggling with weight can heighten the risk of osteoarthritis. While people think osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear, it isn’t. Walking puts pressure on cartilage, pushing fluid out. When that pressure is relaxed, fluid floods back in, bringing more nutrients and natural lubricants with it. Walking helps nourish and maintain joints, not damage them.
However, while these experts may extol the virtues of exercise, it might not be as helpful as thought. A new systematic review of research found that, compared to doing nothing or taking a placebo, exercise reduced osteoarthritis pain by six to 12 points on a 100-point scale. Exercise did not improve function better than a placebo or no treatment.
Exercise, ibuprofen and injected corticosteroids all performed equally for improving function and reducing pain. The medications reduced pain by five to 10 points. While exercise was slightly more effective for pain, a few points isn’t a large difference. The researchers concluded that exercise is less effective than total joint replacement for improving pain and function.
There are limitations to the new review. It didn’t consider what type of exercise people in the studies were doing. It’s known that aerobic exercise helps ease the symptoms of osteoarthritis more than stretching. But the review didn’t weight different activities. It also treated home exercise and observed exercise with a trainer or doctor the same, even though exercise with a trainer gets better results. It didn’t look at how long the studies lasted. Many were only 12 weeks long. That’s a short time to see results from exercise. Finally, it didn’t account for what “dose” of exercise people were doing, so people doing less were grouped in with people doing more.
“Our findings question the universal promotion of exercise therapy as the sole focus in first-line treatment to improve pain and physical function in all patients with osteoarthritis,” the authors wrote.
But just because it might not be the most effective treatment for osteoarthritis doesn’t mean you should be giving up your daily routine. Exercise aids your overall health and can lower your pain, if only a bit. Everything helps when you are struggling with pain. A combination of solutions can make a difference.
