Can Exercise Prevent Knee Osteoarthritis?
A study of human skeletons housed in the vaults of US museums is providing a unique historical perspective on the prevailing wisdom that knee osteoarthritis (OA) is primarily a disease of aging and overweight, factors that are difficult if not impossible to prevent at the population level.
In the recent comparison of bones from different periods, people born in the postindustrial era were substantially more likely to have knee OA than those born earlier, confirming a widespread belief that the condition is becoming more common.