Diet, Exercise, or Both for Knee Osteoarthritis?

Drug therapy often is ineffective for alleviating knee osteoarthritis (OA), and surgical treatment generally is not appropriate for mild-to-moderate cases, so lifestyle modifications still are the foundation of treatment. To assess the relative benefits of diet and exercise, researchers randomized 454 patients (mostly sedentary women; mean age, 66; mean body-mass index, 34 kg/m²) with mild-to-moderate knee OA to diet-induced weight loss, exercise, or both. The diet intervention was a combination of meal-replacement shakes and a low-fat diet plan designed to achieve calorie deficits of 800 to 1000 kcal daily. The exercise intervention consisted of thrice-weekly supervised 1-hour sessions of combined aerobic walking and strength training for …