London Study Says Marathons Good for Knees

The New York Times reported on a prospective cohort study published in the British Medical Journal Open Sport & Exercise Medicine journal that asked, “Can marathon running improve knee damage in middle-aged adults?” The article cites previous studies that showed people with sedentary lifestyles experienced more arthritis in the joints than those of runners. “But most of this science has focused on whether running actively harms knees, not whether it might somehow refurbish and spiff up joints beginning to show signs of wear and tear,” according to the article. The study concluded that study participants experienced improvement to the weight-bearing sections of their knee joints after they trained for and ran a marathon. Full story.