Want to halt knee arthritis? Then you may want to drink a glass of milk. Researchers have found that women who drank low-fat or fat-free milk slowed the progression of osteoarthritis of the knee. The findings could reveal that diet may play an important role when it comes to deterring arthritis.
"Milk is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, dairy calcium and protein and has long been recognized for its important role in bone health," said Bing Lu, the lead researcher, in an interview with Reuters Health. "We therefore hypothesized that milk consumption may prevent osteoarthritis progression."
Arthritis causes painful swelling of the joints, and can to degenerative arthritis, known as osteoarthritis, according to Web MD. Currently, osteoarthritis is the leading form of arthritis and affects nearly 27 million people in the U.S. at the age of 25 or older.
In order to more fully examine the role of diet when it comes to arthritis, the researchers collected detailed health, diet and behavioral data on 2,148 men and women with knee osteoarthritis. In addition, the scientists performed annual knee X-rays for four years, measuring the space between bones in order to track progression, according to the NY Times.
So what did they find? It turns out that women who drank more milk showed less knee degeneration. A similar response was not seen in men.
"The gender differences in the relationship of milk consumption with osteoarthritis progression are not completely understood," said Lu in an interview with Reuters. That said, sex differences have been noted in the prevalence and severity of arthritis for years.
The findings could give women a new way to help combat arthritis. By drinking some low-fat milk, women could potentially help slow the progression of osteoarthritis. That said, more research needs to be conducted before any clear cause-and-effect is established.
The findings are published in Arthritis Care & Research.
