Further Strategies in Working With High-mileage Knees

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The forces on the knee are often more than 2-3 times your body weight. While walking, for example, a 150 pound person has 300-450 pounds of pressure on the knee joint. Thankfully, knees are designed to handle these loads, though high-mileage knees often hurt more when exposed to greater loads.

For that reason, one of the front-line treatments for knee arthritis is weight loss. Weight loss can be a triggering subject for many, though reducing body weight by even 10-pounds can significantly reduce pressure on the knees. Every ounce counts when it comes to high-mileage knees.

While I’ve generally been pretty lean over my life, my weight has fluctuated over the years. And like so many of us, the net trajectory of my body weight has been upward, particularly since entering midlife. When the orthopedist showed images of the “severe osteoarthritis” in my knee and suggested full knee-replacement as a treatment option, I took a hard look at my body weight.

As we age, we all tend to lose muscle mass and gain fat. Whether active or sedentary, it’s nearly impossible to dodge this aspect of aging. Even though I weigh pretty much what I did in college, it’s a safe bet that I’m carrying a few more pounds of fat that the younger version of myself did. That metabolically inert adipose (fat) tissue not only puts unneeded stress on the knees, it is also associated with elevated levels of inflammation. Whether arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis or any other -itis, inflammation is involved, and adipose tissue is inherently inflammatory.

In the interest of reducing unneeded stress on my knees and reducing overall levels of inflammation, I’ve recently embarked on a regimen to lose a few pounds. I’ll be closely monitoring muscle mass, as I assuredly don’t want to lose weight by losing muscle. I’ll also be keeping an eye on the various proxy measures of inflammation. I’m currently about halfway to my goal, and am already finding that proxy measures of inflammation show improvement, and that my knees feel more resilient.


In the next post, I'll talk more extensively about inflammation, and concrete steps you can take to reduce its negative impacts on your health.

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