Can osteoarthritis be prevented?

You can take steps to help prevent osteoarthritis. If you already have arthritis, these same steps may keep it from getting worse.

• Stay at a healthy weight or lose weight if you need to. Extra weight puts a lot of stress on the large, weight-bearing joints such as the knees, the hips and the balls of the feet. Experts estimate that every 1 lb (0.5 kg) of body weight adds about 4 lb (1.8 kg) of stress to the knee. This means that if you lost just 5 lb (2.3 kg), you could take 20 lb (9.1 kg) of stress off your knees.
• Be active. A lack of exercise can cause your muscles and joints to become weak. But light to moderate exercise can help keep your muscles strong and reduce joint pain and stiffness. For example, if your quadriceps (the muscles in the front of your thigh) are weak, you may be more likely to get arthritis of the knee.
• Protect your joints. Try not to do tasks that cause pain or swelling in joints. And try to use the largest joints or strongest muscles to do things. A single major injury to a joint or several minor injuries can damage cartilage over time.

Here are some things that can help prevent osteoarthritis:

• Weight control: Reducing body weight can reduce the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis by about 20% in men and by more than 30% in women. In patients who already have knee osteoarthritis, weight loss reduces the risk that the disease will get worse.
• Strengthen the muscles: Whether or not knee pain is felt, patients with signs of osteoarthritis in their x-rays had thigh muscles that were considerably weaker than patients without signs of osteoarthritis. Strengthening muscles is assumed to provide greater support for the joints and to reduce the risk of osteoarthritis. Regardless of any effect on the risk of getting osteoarthritis, regular exercise -- especially weight-bearing exercise -- helps maintain physical function and slows the development of disabilities significantly.
• Prevent injuries: Stress on a joint that goes beyond what the joint is capable of taking, especially if the stress is repetitious, increases the risk of osteoarthritis later on. The same is true for sudden injuries such as bone fractures, meniscus tears, or tears of ligaments.
• Antioxidants: Intake of antioxidant nutrients -- including vitamins C, D, and E and beta-carotene -- has been found to be beneficial in people with osteoarthritis. One study found that people with osteoarthritis who consumed more antioxidant nutrients, especially vitamin C, slowed the progression of the disease, reduced the risk of cartilage loss, and reduced the risk of developing knee pain. These relationships were not seen with other nutrients. The results of the study may be explained by the effects of the antioxidant nutrients but also could be due to the fact that healthier people are more likely to eat diets that are rich in antioxidants.

So far, there is no proof that increased consumption of antioxidants can reduce the risk of developing osteoarthritis in people who are free of the disease. It is also important to understand that antioxidant nutrients do not act independently from other nutrients and cannot replace eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.

• Vitamin D: Osteoarthritis sufferers who have low blood levels and consume inadequate amounts of vitamin D tend to have a more rapid progression of the disease (as seen in x-rays) than people who consume adequate amounts of vitamin D. Intake of vitamin D has not been found to affect the risk of getting osteoarthritis.

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