Study reveals how a small change in your walking style can relieve knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis happens when the cartilage in the knee joint breaks down, causing the bones to rub together. This leads to friction and thus, pain and swelling. According to the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis affecting 32.5 million US adults.



Now, a study published in The Lancet Rheumatology on August 12th, revealed that slightly changing your walking style could considerably ease the pain caused by knee osteoarthritis. People trained to angle their feet in a slightly inward or outward position from their natural alignment experienced slower degeneration of the cartilage cushion inside their knees, showed the results. People also reported greater reductions in knee pain and better knee function a year later, said researchers.

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“Altogether, our findings suggest that helping patients find their best foot angle to reduce stress on their knees may offer an easy and fairly inexpensive way to address early-stage osteoarthritis,” said Valentina Mazzoli, co-lead researcher and assistant professor of radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.

The enlightening study

For the study, the researchers recruited 68 people with knee osteoarthritis and recorded their gait while walking on a treadmill. A computer program simulated their walking patterns and calculated the maximum stress they placed on their knees.

The team also generated computer models of four new foot positions angled inward or outward by 5 or 10 degrees and estimated which would be best to reduce stress on each person's knees.

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Then, the participants were divided into 2 groups with half being trained in six sessions to walk with a foot angle ideal for them and the other half continuing walking normally.

The results revealed that those who adjusted their gait reduced maximum loading in their knees by 4% while those who kept their walking style increased the load by 3%.

Additionally, those taught a new foot position also experienced a 2.5 point reduction on a 10-point pain scale, equivalent to over-the-counter painkillers such as NSAIDs and acetaminophen, said the researchers.

“These results highlight the importance of personalizing treatment instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to osteoarthritis,” Mazzoli said. “While this strategy may sound challenging, recent advances in detecting the motion of different body parts using artificial intelligence may make it easier and faster than ever before.”