The researchers of the University of California, San Francisco (a center of health sciences research, patient care, and education) have discovered evidence that losing weight has a defensive effect against the cartilage degeneration of a person and that the more a person looses weight the more beneficial it is for him.

As stated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the major risk factor for osteoarthritis is obesity, which is a degenerative joint disease that affects adult persons over the age of 60 years old. The knee joint of a person is the usual area of osteoarthritis and in many individuals, the condition progresses until a total knee replacement becomes compulsory.

The lead author of the study - Alexandra Gersing, said in a statement, "Degenerative joint disease is a huge cause of pain and disability in our population, and obesity is a notable risk factor. And once cartilage is lost in osteoarthritis, the disease cannot be reversed."

Based on the study, the researchers have gathered and analyzed data from more than 500 overweight and obese person. The 500 overweight and obese persons either had mild to moderate osteoarthritis or risk factors for the disease. Reportedly, the investigators examined methodically and in detail the differences in the quality of cartilage among the groups over a time span of four-year.

Alexandra Gersing, M.D., who is from the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, stated that, "Cartilage degenerated at a slow pace in the group that lost more than 10 percent of their body weight, particularly in the weight-bearing regions of the knee," Dr. Alexandra Gersing also said, "However, those persons with 5 to 10 percent weight loss had almost no difference in cartilage degeneration compared to those persons who didn't lose weight."

And Dr. Alexandra Gersing said that it's more helpful for people if these lifestyle interventions will be applied as early as possible.