Losing weight results in numerous health benefits. If you have problems with your knees, read the good news in this excerpt from a recent study:
“The most exciting finding of our research was that not only did we see slower degeneration in the articular cartilage, we saw that the menisci degenerated a lot slower in overweight and obese individuals who lost more than 5 percent of their body weight, and that the effects were strongest in overweight individuals and in individuals with substantial weight loss,” Dr. Gersing said. Light to moderate exercise is also recommended to protect against cartilage degeneration in the knee.” (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170502084050.htm)
Understanding Why
In the picture above showing the bones of the knee, notice the small surface area of contact where the movement occurs. The smooth white coating you can see on the ends of the bones provides a slick surface where the bones meet–the ‘articular cartilage’ mentioned above.
From the laws of physics, the smaller the area of contact of an object, the more force it exerts on the surface below. For sure we can’t change the small contact area of our knee joints, but you can significantly reduce the tremendous force and stress of movement by reducing your weight.
Doesn’t it make sense to take charge of your health when you have the opportunity to do so?
Steven
Simply Senior Fitness by Steven Siemons is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Simply Senior Fitness: Your Personal Trainer For The Quality of Your Life 