Overweight adults with osteoarthritis who lose just five percent of their body weight can reduce the amount of physical disability associated with this most common form of inflammatory joint disease, results of several studies suggest.
"It is more or less proven now that the most effective thing, if you have osteoarthritis of the knee, is weight loss," study co-author Henning Bliddal, of HS Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, told Reuters Health.
"As such, weight reduction therapy in overweight osteoarthritic patients is a very appealing goal, both with regards to disease-specific pain and disability reduction as well as for overall health benefits such as cardiovascular risk reduction," co-author Robin Christensen, also of HS Frederiksberg Hospital, said in a statement.
To explore the association, Bliddal, Christensen, and their colleagues searched various databases to identify studies involving patients with knee osteoarthritis who experienced a change in weight.
Of the 23 studies that met their criteria, found that study participants experienced less pain and disability upon losing weight. Those three studies included more than 500 individuals.
The association between the study participants' weight loss and their reduced physical disability "seemed convincing," based on those findings, the researchers report.
In fact, computer models predicted that a weight loss of at least 5.02 percent, within a set time period, would significantly reduce physical disability in overweight individuals with osteoarthritis, study findings indicate.
A weight loss of 10 percent, however, "results in moderate -to-large improvement in self-reported physical disability," Christensen noted.
In light of these findings, Bliddal advises overweight individuals "to lose 10 percent of their weight within two months."
The best way to lose the weight is not by simply increasing their level of physical activity, however. "You can't exercise your weight down, you have to do something about your food," Bliddal said, adding that these patients should "start losing the weight first, and then exercise."
In so doing, "your knees will last longer," he said.
The findings were presented last week during the 7th Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Amsterdam.
一些研究结果提示，患有骨关节炎的超重成人若减掉5％的体重，就可减少由最常见炎症性关节病引发的身体残疾。
“现在已经在一定程度上证实，如果患有膝关节炎，最有效的治疗是减肥。”哥本哈根HS Frederiksberg医院的论文作者Henning Bliddal对路透社健康部说。
同样来自上述医院的作者Robin Christensen在一篇综述中讲道，“如果真是这样，对于超重的骨关节炎病人而言，减肥疗法是个很吸引人的方法，因为不仅减少了疾病特异性的疼痛和残疾，还对全身健康有益，例如减少心血管的发病危险。”
为了探究其相关性，Bliddal、Christensen和他们的同事搜索了各种数据库，来确定他们对于有体重改变的膝关节炎病人的研究是否有意义。符合标准的23个研究显示，其参与者通过减轻体重感到疼痛与残疾减轻了。而这些研究包括了500多名患者。
研究者报告，基于这些发现，研究参与者的体重减轻和其身体残疾缓解间的相关性，结果“令人信服”。
事实上，电脑模型预测研究发现，在规定的时间段里，超重的骨关节炎患者减掉至少5.02％的体重后，将会明显地减轻身体残疾。然而，“减轻10％的体重将中到大幅度地改善身体残疾。”Christensen写道。
基于这些发现，Bliddal建议超重者“在两个月内减轻10％的体重”。
最好的减肥法不仅是增加运动量，Bliddal说，“你不能运动减肥，而是先从你的食物开始”，他补充道，“这些患者应该先减轻体重，再运动。”
这样做，“你的膝盖可以用得更久”他讲道。
这个发现是在上周阿姆斯特丹召开的第七界欧洲风湿病年会发表的。
编者按：本文由丁香园网友xiazai_2001翻译。
编辑：西门吹血
