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 MAY 30, 2008 Cartilage Recovers Quickly From a Tough Run Running, by itself, does not appear to damage the cartilage or lead to arthritis in otherwise healthy knees. A long-distance run can temporarily wear down the cartilage cushioning the knee joint, but the tissue seems to quickly recover, according to a small German study. The researchers analyzed knee cartilage of 10 men, who ran an average of more than 40 miles a week, with MRI scans 1 hour before a 12-mile run, immediately following the run, and 1 hour afterward. They found that the volume of knee cartilage dropped (mainly due to fluid changes) immediately after the run, but 1 hour later the cartilage had largely recovered its volume. This suggests that cartilage is able to bear the load of running and recover from any volume changes, says lead researcher Dr. Markus A. Kessler, of Ludwig- Maximilians-University Munich in the May issue of American Journal of Sports Medicine. What if your knee is already damaged? The stress of running could potentially exacerbate the problem. Kessler notes that distance running might also be risky if you are significantly overweight or knock-kneed or bow-legged, which all put a strain on the knee joint. If you have pain under the kneecap, you probably have the most common sports injury, runner's knee (chondromalacia patella). The cartilage in the kneecap wears down because the kneecap is tracking improperly. With raw bone rubbing on raw bone, your knee aches with each stride you take. The cause of the problem may be in the way your foot strikes the ground. You can correct an improper foot strike with an arch support or orthotic, and then build up the inner side of the quadriceps muscle in the front of the thigh. You also can take two aspirins, four times a day, to ease the pain. |
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