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Weight loss may reduce arthritis disability
NEW
YORK (Reuters) -- Overweight adults with osteoarthritis who lose just
five percent of their body weight can reduce the amount of physical
disability associated with this most common form of inflammatory joint
disease, results of several studies suggest.
"It is more or less proven now that the most effective thing, if you
have osteoarthritis of the knee, is weight loss," study co-author
Henning Bliddal, of HS Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark,
told Reuters.
"As such, weight reduction therapy in overweight osteoarthritic
patients is a very appealing goal, both with regards to
disease-specific pain and disability reduction as well as for overall
health benefits such as cardiovascular risk reduction," co-author Robin
Christensen, also of HS Frederiksberg Hospital, said in a statement.
To explore the association, Bliddal, Christensen, and their colleagues
searched various databases to identify studies involving patients with
knee osteoarthritis who experienced a change in weight.
Of the 23 studies that met their criteria, found that study
participants experienced less pain and disability upon losing weight.
Those three studies included more than 500 individuals.
The association between the study participants' weight loss and their
reduced physical disability "seemed convincing," based on those
findings, the researchers report.
In fact, computer models predicted that a weight loss of at least 5.02
percent, within a set time period, would significantly reduce physical
disability in overweight individuals with osteoarthritis, study
findings indicate.
A weight loss of 10 percent, however, "results in moderate -to-large
improvement in self-reported physical disability," Christensen noted.
In light of these findings, Bliddal advises overweight individuals "to lose 10 percent of their weight within two months."
The best way to lose the weight is not by simply increasing their level
of physical activity, however. "You can't exercise your weight down,
you have to do something about your food," Bliddal said, adding that
these patients should "start losing the weight first, and then
exercise."
In so doing, "your knees will last longer," he said.
The findings were presented last week during the seventh Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Amsterdam.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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