Anecdote for any runners reading this: I'm a 75 year old runner. (Some young runners might say I run at a jogger's pace, I just tell them to keep off my lawn.)
A couple decades ago, I stopped running on concrete or asphalt, and took up trail running, i.e. running on (mostly) dirt. It feels way easier than running on asphalt, much less on concrete. If you're skeptical that running on concrete or asphalt feels harder, give it a try. YMMV, but I'd bet you notice a difference.
And yes, I do fall sometimes, tripping over roots or rocks. But I recover quickly.
I switched to trail and found I stopped getting injuries related to lateral stabilization of my hips and legs.
I've come to think it's because the trails challenge those stabilizers sufficiently so they get trained properly rather than... I don't know, repeatedly being irritated by running too straight for long periods of time?
I'm not a kinesiologist so I have no idea what the real difference is, but I do know I get hurt far less on the trails than I did on pavement.
One possibility is that I go slower overall so I can't push the limits of some muscle and tendon groups like I could on pavement. Everything gets more equally pressured, but less on average.
You're not wrong, but most of us don't live near a good dirt running trail so we have to drive to reach the trail head. When we have to squeeze in a run on workdays it becomes a choice between running on the street versus not running at all. Mud is also a problem for trail running in areas that get much rain.
Trail running is fun. But it’s probably not the surface but the technique change, that gets rid of the pain. I’m currently going through the process of shifting my running technique to where I push rather than pull myself forward and it’s a revelation. When your foot lands in front of your center of gravity, it necessarily brakes your forward movement. All that momentum has to go somewhere, eg get absorbed by your joints. Changing this makes you more efficient as well as reducing strain on the soft tissue.
This sounds interesting. Would you be able to share more information about this style of running? I'm having a hard time imagining how this plays out in real life.
Running barefoot forces you to improve your technique in line with this description. [0] There's also a sizeable market of "barefoot shoes" that's between being barefoot and the regular running shoes, with the manufacturers trying to convince us buying such shoes is the solution. The gait issue become more obvious (and painful) in barefoot shoes, but you can adjust your technique in mass-market running shoes as well.
I tried swapping running with cycling for a few months but honestly as somebody who spends a good portion of my time on my ass, often with suboptimal posture in front of a screen I hate the idea of exercising still sitting on my ass with bad posture.
The most important thing imo is to find a form of cardio you enjoy. It's not worth stressing over the differences between forms of cardio just find something you like and make it a part of your lifestyle.
Reagarding knee injuries, sure intense running with bad form is more likely to get you an overuse injury but those heal quickly, long term studies don't show increased knee/hip risk for runners.
Strength exercises are also very important for runners. Getting all the muscles arounf your hips, knees and ankles stronger significantly reduces the chance and severity of injuries and has a ton of other benefits.
I was a cycling maniac for some time. It fucks one up (knees, back, elbows) anyways. After 10 years of that I cut it down to occasional pleasure rides. Luckily all my pains had stopped after a couple of years.
Running absolutely impacts the knees, but the compression of meniscus for example is what circulates nutrients into it so some impact is necessary for healthy knees as well.
I no longer regularly jog / run / cycle, only occasionally for pleasure. I either swim or hike steep hills or if weather is ugly just put treadmill on 15% incline and walk very fast for an hour or so. Wastes energy like crazy and leaves my knees intact.
There is the downhill part of the hikes, unless you have ski lifts or similar way of getting down. I used to do running a bit before major paragliding accident, and I hiked like there is no tomorrow and still do... subjectively the hiking down part felt more stressful on knees than running (maybe not on concrete/tarmac).
many people try to go too much around puddles, bits of mud, rocks, ... Switching direction is what makes you slip/fall.
Sometimes, you should just focus on going straight, or at least keep your center of mass relatively going in a smooth line.
Yes, sometimes that means going through a puddle or do a small jump, but I find it much safer. Of course, on a potential slippery surface, try to make that 1 step lower impact, basically like an in-between step. This can also imply vary big changes to your cadence, which is not always optimal from aerobic perspective.
You can exercise your ankles so they are less likely to crumble if forced into an awkward position. Also look at where your feet land compared to each other: if one is almost ahead of the other (think camel stride), your foot is to the left (or right) of its hip and is thus naturally bent outwards. Having your foot land more squarely compared to how the body weight works, reduces the strain on the ankle. If the inside of your ankle/sock is always dirty after a run, this is why. Am currently going through the process of fixing this on myself.
I've heard it's actually beneficial for your ankles long term to get some tilt/pan on them. It reduces your chances of injury by strengthening the twitch muscles in your ankle and legs.
Important to note the point is "trail running" not "alpine running", gravel and dirt vs, steep inclines and big rocks.
Anecdotally, just adjust your pace/length until you're comfortable. I've always done mixed asphalt/dirt-trail and there is a notable difference in my knee fatigue when there is a bigger ratio of one or the other, would always prefer a nice gravel or dirt over the road.
You just get used to trail running over time. If you’re nimble and light on your feet a slip almost never turns into a fall. With practice you dodge the bad steps without much thought or you step knowing it’s iffy, slide and keep running. You don’t commit hard down on your heel.
The form i use basically the “natural” running style. Land with your body over your foot, land on your foot flat or on the ball. This is good for trail running because it’s much easier to not commit to a step when you’re not planting hard with your heel.
I’ve never sprained an ankle trail running, not that it can’t happen. I’ve gone like 90 degrees on my ankle before but I can usually unweight and collapse on that leg and catch myself on the other leg and keep running. I run in sandals and I backpack in trail runners.
Trail running strengthens your ankles what with all the uneven ground that has to be compensated for.
Yes, I noticed this too. I ran a lot in high school / university, and for some reason we mostly ran on the roads. In my late 20s a doctor told me my knees sounded like they were "65".
I read a book my Michael Colgan at the time, and he mentioned training athletes on the trails as much as possible to reduce injury, so I gave it a try ...
That was 25+ years ago. At first people looked at me strange, like I was running from an animal. But its common now, and I'm still running on the trail, and knees seem OK.
Yes of course, you can still trip, step on a snake, etc, but its a different kind of injury. You are adapting gait and balance constantly which is nice too.
Running on the trail is much more interesting, with constant change, ups, downs, variations. Whereas running on grass / asphalt I can go into autopilot mentally and start ruminating, this is harder on the trail and I am more in a state of "here and now".
I have had fairly serious arthritis in my hips for close to a decade now. Cortizone shots directly into the joint have helped the worst of the flare-ups (limping on my way into the shot, having 0 pain walking out of it, lasting a year).
5+ years ago when I was looking for another injection, my PCP said "Well, time for a hip replacement." Now, for reasons I don't understand I think he was being way premature on that (everyone I'd talked to prior to that had said I should wait as long as I can, and it'd been 2+ years since my last shot).
But I'd pretty much accepted that hip pain was just a part of my life, (especially in the morning) picking something off the floor was painful, just walking and in particular walking stairs was just a little painful.
A few weeks ago I tried some stretches I saw on Youtube shorts. Like a minute a day. It's like I've got new hips.
I've never been a very "compliant patient" when it comes to stretching, but that was mostly because I saw no benefits from it. But this one stretch was like a miracle!
Some anecdotal knowledge I can share on why they used to say wait as long as you can for a hip replacement:
We were told this was because it used to be that they could only do the hip replacement surgery once, and the replacement joint would only last around 20 years max.
So basically it had to be for the expected life span of the patient!
But now this is no longer true. Well, in Australia at least with access to modern replacement parts, surgical techniques and specialists!
I could be muddling it up a bit, so happy to be corrected :-)
I recently got told something similar in Europe, and anecdotally anyone who’d had a hip replacement and waited on it regretted not doing it as soon as the doc told them.
The body is very weird and finds ways to compensate
I had a football injury when I was 13 that badly damaged my knee meniscus (though I didn’t know it at that time). At 16, I had a complete menisectomy - total removal of the lateral meniscus in my right knee
I was told that I would need to get a transplant and/or new knees in 10-15 years. I was also told that I shouldn’t put too much strain on the knee
I’m now 38 and my knee is mostly…fine. I can run, squat a reasonable amount of weight, walk for miles. Only thing I can’t do is fast directional changes (like in football) or bending down on the lateral side of my right knee
My plan is to extend this as long as possible and hopefully in 10 years, they’ll have tech to fix this for good
When doing stretches, don't forget the opposite side of the equation which is strength.
Not the "I'm going to bench 200lbs" type strength, but the musculature that supports movement.
It's quite easy to always focus on stretching, but not build the muscles that support good movement. You can turn yourself into a floppy noodle, which brings on more injury.
This has been my experience with every sports of weightlifting injury I've had and I'm in my 40s. The body wants to heal or at least compensate in some way. Light activity is often better than rest. I've got a knee that is acting up a little bit but I think I've figured out how to keep it healthy while running.
"Frog Mobility" -- Get on hands and knees, spread knees but keep your feet closer together, rock back towards your heels and forward.
"Frog Cat/Cow" -- Same position as above, but tilt your pelvis; curve your back up then down.
"Tactical Frog" -- I haven't done this one yet, but it is frog mobility but with each rocking forward twist one of your feet up into the air; IOW rock back then as you rock forward keep one knee locked so that your calf/foot stays in the same relative position as you move forward.
These may not be the same as the one suggested above, but when I fell back in early 2025, my lower back, discs, spine got wrecked. I was sent to Physical therapy and was giving exercises similar to these which helped me, may help you. Keep in mind that it is not a cure...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wAw1-1MHa4
I'm constantly telling people to look up physical therapy movements/stretches for whatever they've got going on. Slept wrong? Tweaked your neck? You absolutely do NOT have to suffer with that until it goes away on its own, they can show you how to fix it.
If your insurance covers it, go see one! Them being able to actually see and feel what's going on specifically with you makes them markedly better at their jobs.
Can’t find the link now but a very comprehensive analysis of surgery vs physiotherapy for lower back issues found that physiotherapy was as effective as invasive, often dangerous spinal surgery. The only difference was time - surgery with recovery + recovery physio fixed the pain in about 4-6 months, while physiotherapy took 18-24 months
But on the plus side, physiotherapy is “free”, has no real risk, and most people who opted for the physiotherapy path found that they were happier and also fixed a lot of other pains simply because of regular stretching and exercise
I f'd my knees running track in HS - i suspect some kind of structural problem that alters the way my knees move. Sr year wsa awful, i was just about crawling to class in the morning. MRIs showed nothing and I learned to live with it and eventually it got better when I stopped running.
10ish years later I had started riding my bike a lot during the dotcom explosion induced downtime, I kept it up after I was employed again. Knee pain came back. Went to the ortho again, this time was told "oh you have a torn meniscus, lets go fix it.
So I went under and woke up to be told that my meniscus was fine, and that I had worn grooves through the cartilage and into the bone - doc told me to never run, jump, ski, ride, etc. I was to sit on the couch.
Somehow I ended up taking karate, and the knees hurt for a bit, but the stretching we did helped loosen up my hams and quads. It didnt make the knee pain go away, but it made it tolerable in that it no longer affected my day to day.
When you're a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Good thing you were able to find a good alternative solution. I suspect a lot of ailments could be resolved with non-medical interventions, but there's little money to be made there and also, a lot of people want the perceived "easier" way out.
"Abstract: Regeneration of hyaline cartilage in human-sized joints remains a clinical challenge, and it is a critical unmet need that would contribute to longer healthspans. Injectable scaffolds for cartilage repair that integrate both bioactivity and sufficiently robust physical properties to withstand joint stresses offer a promising strategy. We report here on a hybrid biomaterial that combines a bioactive peptide amphiphile supramolecular polymer that specifically binds the chondrogenic cytokine transforming growth factor β-1 (TGFβ-1) and crosslinked hyaluronic acid microgels that drive formation of filament bundles, a hierarchical motif common in natural musculoskeletal tissues. The scaffold is an injectable slurry that generates a porous rubbery material when exposed to calcium ions once placed in cartilage defects. The hybrid material was found to support in vitro chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated stem cells in response to sustained delivery of TGFβ-1. Using a sheep model, we implanted the scaffold in shallow osteochondral defects and found it can remain localized in mechanically active joints. Evaluation of resected joints showed significantly improved repair of hyaline cartilage in osteochondral defects injected with the scaffold relative to defects injected with the growth factor alone, including implantation in the load-bearing femoral condyle. These results demonstrate the potential of the hybrid biomimetic scaffold as a niche to favor cartilage repair in mechanically active joints using a clinically relevant large-animal model."
> Osteoarthritis occurs when a joint is stressed by aging, injury or obesity. The chondrocytes begin to release pro-inflammatory molecules and to break down collagen, which is the primary structural protein of cartilage. When collagen is lost, the cartilage thins and softens; the accompanying inflammation causes the joint swelling and pain that are hallmarks of the disease.
Collagen synthesis in the human body can be aided by hydrolyzed collagen, Vitamin C, zinc and copper.
Among endurance athletes collagen supplements have become increasingly popular the past couple years -- from what I understand the evidence is kind of mixed though
I don't get what's the supposed mechanism of action here. Collagen is a hard to digest protein and it has to get digested to be processed and then it's no longer collagen. Why not just eat any other protein source instead?
Yes, that seems to sort of be the criticism and mixed results. Although not everyone has a complete protein diet so theoretically although it breaks down the idea is you then have all the things you need, should your body choose to use it to build collagen.
But I agree, I'd rather start solving deficiencies at the diet level than the supplement level and haven't integrated collagen personally so far.
TBH I suspect marketing plays a big role. "Collagen = good, therefore just buy it and eat it" makes logical sense if you don't actually do any research first.
Maybe, maybe not. It would depend on a variety of factors including the activities you do, your age, etc. Maybe athletes need more collagen compared to people who don’t exercise, etc, etc.
Also complete protein sources are definitely not easy to get. Good luck if you have dietary constraints.
Keith Baar's videos on YT have helped me a lot; both for treating my knee pain and for increasing overall muscle strength. The videos tell you how to heal or strengthen your tendons, ligaments, and muscles.
I found that second link interesting although it raised the question of why gelatin versus amino acids in general.
However neither link seems to have anything to do with UC Davis or biochemical mechanisms related to collagen supplementation. I realize that it probably wasn't your intent but the mismatch leaves me feeling vaguely as though you tried to deceive me there.
The joint at the base of my thumb started telling me it's 60 years old. I stopped being able to open jars easily last year and would like to get my grip strength back.
Ironically, last year i decided to relearn piano after some 40 years. Learned one piece (a pretty good one, fortunately) and a once a day play triggered it. So. It's more like once every 2-3 weeks now, not long enough to forget, but long enough to keep the thumb feeling all right.
I got surgery about 8 years ago, after 10 years of on/off knee pain that I ignored. I had locking in the knee so I needed to so something so I could walk. Surgery was fine, they opened me up and my meniscus was all stringy as if you cracked an egg in boiling water, so no fixing it and they cut off 50% of my meniscus. I recovered quite easily, stupidly did not do any formal physio but proceeded to do mostly moderately heavy lifting with some light running and cycling (very light cardio for the runners around, but still something compared to couch potatoes). Since about 2 years I have pain and a pressure in the knee, not very intense pain but more unsettling. Pain also seems to show up after some sort of activity threshold and the effort accumulates. I eventually took an MRI about a month ago, I have first to second degree condroathy. A couple of physio sessions seemed to help but I need to take the time to do a full physio cycle. I can't wait for cartilage Regen tech. It's very nice being physically active. Worst case, I use it until I can't anymore, do a knee replacement and after that fails hop on one leg as a pirate.
My hope to pull another 15 years of functional use out of it, enough to do fun activities with my son.
Turns out the pain in my knee was a latent infection with staph aureus, forming small nubs under the skin.
Debrided the skin, removing the nubs, applied 3% doyiciclin creme and pain is gone.
This for a knee with 2 operations before and teo doctors saying I need a replacement.
Doctors are mostly unhelpful idiots imho.
What happened to you? Might anything you have learned help me? Recommended reading?
I too have a shoulder tendon issue: 14 months ago a loud one-time "pop" occurred while doing a simple external rotation shoulder exercise with very light weight. I immediately lost most strength lhs and the shoulder felt very loose. More than a year later + 1 steroid shot my shoulder is much better but still loose.
Lots of folks are pointing this out, but it's not like there isn't evidence to suggest this will also apply to humans.
> Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.
I wonder if this would apply to backs/back injuries. This is super exciting, if it pans out. I can't wait for the follow up research. A pill that 'just works' is an amazing thing. Loosing mobility later in life leads to a lot of problems so directly attacking the cause of (a lot) of mobility loss is really great to see.
I run regularly. Some years back I switched from a heel strike stride to a ball-of-foot strike. It greatly reduced the shock load on my knees and hips. It's the same gait you'd naturally do if you took off your shoe and ran barefoot.
Curious, does anyone know if this might also apply to tendons? I've had patella tendonitis for years (jumpers knee) and have tried everything (isometrics, shockwave, PRP injections, etc...).
Cartilage is really the final frontier of health. If it wasn’t for joints going bad, people could stay very active and fit pretty much all their life, with consistent exercise and healthy weight.
FTFA: "Both systemic and local inhibition of 15-PGDH with a small molecule inhibitor (PGDHi) led to regeneration of articular cartilage and reduction in OA-associated pain."
"PGDHi" is a name for both the process "15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibition" and any inhibitor.
This link(a PDF file) shows PGDHi's are powerful stuff:
Big fan of my Dygma Defy and I've been using WisprFlow super heavily this last year, but the immediacy of typing is still hard to beat. But yeah, I hope the voice tools keep getting better, they've been a real life-saver so far and fortunately I'm a very fast talker.
Yep. On a keyboard with 8 thumb cluster keys per side, and custom 35g switches to lower the force needed to actuate, that helped a lot, but still not enough to be pain-free. Unfortunately once the damage is done on certain joints you can only do so much short of not using those fingers at all. 30 years of hammering keys pretty hard eventually catch up to you.
You should try 20g springs, they are really good for typing. I also removed the keycaps and replaced them with small pieces of band-aid on top of the switch stems which also helped. Also dictating plain text like comments and typing only for correcting errors in dictation and for short actions is better. It's easier to press a button rather than say a lengthy command, because vocal cords can also be damaged by speaking too much.
Where have you been able to find ultralight springs available to consumers? I was looking into this last week and the 10-20g ones were only available straight from the factory in South Korea with shipping costing $200... I was happy to get them and swap them out, but that shipping pricetag was too much of a highway robbery.
Would appreciate any advice here :)
And, intrigued about the idea of not using key switches at all. Are there any aftermarket alternatives available online for "keycaps" that are better at softening the impact on the finger, something softer and bouncier perhaps? Seems like something people would have experimented with.
Does anyone have any idea if you have arthritis what you can do to manage the symptoms? I figure there are some people here that researched it relatively well.
Arthritis is a general term; need narrow down for useful advice on managing symptoms.
Two most common types are osteoarthritis (wear-and-tear associated with aging and/or injuries) and rheumatoid arthritis (autoimmune).
I only know about age-related knee osteoarthritis to try to help my mom manage her symptoms, so I'll share my understanding of treating that.
High ROI, low cost:
- weight management. Extra lbs are extra stress on the knees, plus I suspect chronic inflammation associated with being overweight can exacerbate arthritis independent of mechanical stress.
- exercise, specifically low impact cardio and any pain-free strength/hypertrophy work targeting the musculature around the knees (mainly quads).
Variable ROI, low cost:
- NSAIDs, specifically topical to focus on treatment area and reduce impact on GI system/kidneys.
- curcumin, mixed evidence but some people report benefits.
Variable ROI, high cost:
- PRP injections. Apparently the quality on these varies dramatically by provider. Would recommend doing research and comparing multiple providers if possible.
- Knee replacement. Far from a panacea; you'll lose range of motion forever, plus plenty of other trade-offs. Most people recommend putting this off for as long as possible.
Also interesting is low dose radiation treatment for knee OA. More affordable than other procedures and has some promising research.
Not much else on the novel treatment front that I've found. Curious if anyone thinks I've missed anything worthwhile.
I've had arthrosis in both knees for several years (due to a combination of youthful sports injuries and overweight). A few years ago I saw a knee specialist who predicted I was due for knee replacement sometime soon.
On the advice of a massage therapist I instead started a habit of using a home cycling machine for half an hour each morning. So far, it has worked wonders for me, and I hope I can hold on for a decade more, by which time the injection mentioned in the article might be ready for humans.
afaik surgeons are able to perform quite a few types of surgeries, obviously the ones working on brains more advanced than ones working on knees it's probably only a few years to transition to a different type of category.
I'd like to think orthopedists would rather be overjoyed at this. My wife had her knee and hip done by a cracking orthopedist, and his primary concern was her quality of life. He even went to the state physicians' board to argue that her hip surgery should be considered necessary rather than elective for purposes of COVID restrictions, so that we could get it done months before it was originally scheduled.
Almost certainly. Ankles also rely upon hyaline cartilage (as opposed to fibrocartilage). I found this out when I had microfracture surgery for a bad ankle injury.
Looking forward to this therapy. My fibrocartilage is wearing out!
Here for the same question! Broke my left ankle three times as a football (soccer) playing youth who cared not for rehab! Now stuck with limited range of monitor and arthritis in my foot / ankle.
> Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.
Anecdote for any runners reading this: I'm a 75 year old runner. (Some young runners might say I run at a jogger's pace, I just tell them to keep off my lawn.)
A couple decades ago, I stopped running on concrete or asphalt, and took up trail running, i.e. running on (mostly) dirt. It feels way easier than running on asphalt, much less on concrete. If you're skeptical that running on concrete or asphalt feels harder, give it a try. YMMV, but I'd bet you notice a difference.
And yes, I do fall sometimes, tripping over roots or rocks. But I recover quickly.
I switched to trail and found I stopped getting injuries related to lateral stabilization of my hips and legs.
I've come to think it's because the trails challenge those stabilizers sufficiently so they get trained properly rather than... I don't know, repeatedly being irritated by running too straight for long periods of time?
I'm not a kinesiologist so I have no idea what the real difference is, but I do know I get hurt far less on the trails than I did on pavement.
One possibility is that I go slower overall so I can't push the limits of some muscle and tendon groups like I could on pavement. Everything gets more equally pressured, but less on average.
You're not wrong, but most of us don't live near a good dirt running trail so we have to drive to reach the trail head. When we have to squeeze in a run on workdays it becomes a choice between running on the street versus not running at all. Mud is also a problem for trail running in areas that get much rain.
Trail running is fun. But it’s probably not the surface but the technique change, that gets rid of the pain. I’m currently going through the process of shifting my running technique to where I push rather than pull myself forward and it’s a revelation. When your foot lands in front of your center of gravity, it necessarily brakes your forward movement. All that momentum has to go somewhere, eg get absorbed by your joints. Changing this makes you more efficient as well as reducing strain on the soft tissue.
This sounds interesting. Would you be able to share more information about this style of running? I'm having a hard time imagining how this plays out in real life.
Running barefoot forces you to improve your technique in line with this description. [0] There's also a sizeable market of "barefoot shoes" that's between being barefoot and the regular running shoes, with the manufacturers trying to convince us buying such shoes is the solution. The gait issue become more obvious (and painful) in barefoot shoes, but you can adjust your technique in mass-market running shoes as well.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSIDRHUWlVo
Why not take up cycling?
I tried swapping running with cycling for a few months but honestly as somebody who spends a good portion of my time on my ass, often with suboptimal posture in front of a screen I hate the idea of exercising still sitting on my ass with bad posture.
The most important thing imo is to find a form of cardio you enjoy. It's not worth stressing over the differences between forms of cardio just find something you like and make it a part of your lifestyle.
Reagarding knee injuries, sure intense running with bad form is more likely to get you an overuse injury but those heal quickly, long term studies don't show increased knee/hip risk for runners.
Strength exercises are also very important for runners. Getting all the muscles arounf your hips, knees and ankles stronger significantly reduces the chance and severity of injuries and has a ton of other benefits.
>"Why not take up cycling?"
I was a cycling maniac for some time. It fucks one up (knees, back, elbows) anyways. After 10 years of that I cut it down to occasional pleasure rides. Luckily all my pains had stopped after a couple of years.
isn't jogging more impactful to the knees than cycling? I've seen this over and over.
Yes, but it’s a common misconception that impact is a bad thing.
The body, including bones, muscles, tendons and joints, adapt to stress. Many people do too little, not too much, as they get older.
There’s a limit to that recovery of course, and balancing it with stress is not always simple.
Running absolutely impacts the knees, but the compression of meniscus for example is what circulates nutrients into it so some impact is necessary for healthy knees as well.
A poorly adjusted cleat is absolute hell on the knee.
It can be difficult to fix too as once your knee is sore it takes ages to come right so it’s not clear if adjusting the cleat is working.
I no longer regularly jog / run / cycle, only occasionally for pleasure. I either swim or hike steep hills or if weather is ugly just put treadmill on 15% incline and walk very fast for an hour or so. Wastes energy like crazy and leaves my knees intact.
There is the downhill part of the hikes, unless you have ski lifts or similar way of getting down. I used to do running a bit before major paragliding accident, and I hiked like there is no tomorrow and still do... subjectively the hiking down part felt more stressful on knees than running (maybe not on concrete/tarmac).
I'd worry about sprained ankles on a false step or a slippery leaf-rock trap. Is there a technical approach to running in these conditions?
many people try to go too much around puddles, bits of mud, rocks, ... Switching direction is what makes you slip/fall.
Sometimes, you should just focus on going straight, or at least keep your center of mass relatively going in a smooth line.
Yes, sometimes that means going through a puddle or do a small jump, but I find it much safer. Of course, on a potential slippery surface, try to make that 1 step lower impact, basically like an in-between step. This can also imply vary big changes to your cadence, which is not always optimal from aerobic perspective.
You can exercise your ankles so they are less likely to crumble if forced into an awkward position. Also look at where your feet land compared to each other: if one is almost ahead of the other (think camel stride), your foot is to the left (or right) of its hip and is thus naturally bent outwards. Having your foot land more squarely compared to how the body weight works, reduces the strain on the ankle. If the inside of your ankle/sock is always dirty after a run, this is why. Am currently going through the process of fixing this on myself.
I've heard it's actually beneficial for your ankles long term to get some tilt/pan on them. It reduces your chances of injury by strengthening the twitch muscles in your ankle and legs.
Important to note the point is "trail running" not "alpine running", gravel and dirt vs, steep inclines and big rocks.
Anecdotally, just adjust your pace/length until you're comfortable. I've always done mixed asphalt/dirt-trail and there is a notable difference in my knee fatigue when there is a bigger ratio of one or the other, would always prefer a nice gravel or dirt over the road.
You just get used to trail running over time. If you’re nimble and light on your feet a slip almost never turns into a fall. With practice you dodge the bad steps without much thought or you step knowing it’s iffy, slide and keep running. You don’t commit hard down on your heel.
The form i use basically the “natural” running style. Land with your body over your foot, land on your foot flat or on the ball. This is good for trail running because it’s much easier to not commit to a step when you’re not planting hard with your heel.
I’ve never sprained an ankle trail running, not that it can’t happen. I’ve gone like 90 degrees on my ankle before but I can usually unweight and collapse on that leg and catch myself on the other leg and keep running. I run in sandals and I backpack in trail runners.
Trail running strengthens your ankles what with all the uneven ground that has to be compensated for.
Alternatively rubber tracks also are great, if you have one nearby.
Or just treadmills, I find them more gentle on my joints than concrete because it's slightly cushioned.
Yes, I noticed this too. I ran a lot in high school / university, and for some reason we mostly ran on the roads. In my late 20s a doctor told me my knees sounded like they were "65".
I read a book my Michael Colgan at the time, and he mentioned training athletes on the trails as much as possible to reduce injury, so I gave it a try ...
That was 25+ years ago. At first people looked at me strange, like I was running from an animal. But its common now, and I'm still running on the trail, and knees seem OK.
Yes of course, you can still trip, step on a snake, etc, but its a different kind of injury. You are adapting gait and balance constantly which is nice too.
Running on the trail is much more interesting, with constant change, ups, downs, variations. Whereas running on grass / asphalt I can go into autopilot mentally and start ruminating, this is harder on the trail and I am more in a state of "here and now".
I have had fairly serious arthritis in my hips for close to a decade now. Cortizone shots directly into the joint have helped the worst of the flare-ups (limping on my way into the shot, having 0 pain walking out of it, lasting a year).
5+ years ago when I was looking for another injection, my PCP said "Well, time for a hip replacement." Now, for reasons I don't understand I think he was being way premature on that (everyone I'd talked to prior to that had said I should wait as long as I can, and it'd been 2+ years since my last shot).
But I'd pretty much accepted that hip pain was just a part of my life, (especially in the morning) picking something off the floor was painful, just walking and in particular walking stairs was just a little painful.
A few weeks ago I tried some stretches I saw on Youtube shorts. Like a minute a day. It's like I've got new hips.
I've never been a very "compliant patient" when it comes to stretching, but that was mostly because I saw no benefits from it. But this one stretch was like a miracle!
Some anecdotal knowledge I can share on why they used to say wait as long as you can for a hip replacement:
We were told this was because it used to be that they could only do the hip replacement surgery once, and the replacement joint would only last around 20 years max.
So basically it had to be for the expected life span of the patient!
But now this is no longer true. Well, in Australia at least with access to modern replacement parts, surgical techniques and specialists!
I could be muddling it up a bit, so happy to be corrected :-)
I recently got told something similar in Europe, and anecdotally anyone who’d had a hip replacement and waited on it regretted not doing it as soon as the doc told them.
Hey, could I ask which stretch it was?
The body is very weird and finds ways to compensate
I had a football injury when I was 13 that badly damaged my knee meniscus (though I didn’t know it at that time). At 16, I had a complete menisectomy - total removal of the lateral meniscus in my right knee
I was told that I would need to get a transplant and/or new knees in 10-15 years. I was also told that I shouldn’t put too much strain on the knee
I’m now 38 and my knee is mostly…fine. I can run, squat a reasonable amount of weight, walk for miles. Only thing I can’t do is fast directional changes (like in football) or bending down on the lateral side of my right knee
My plan is to extend this as long as possible and hopefully in 10 years, they’ll have tech to fix this for good
When doing stretches, don't forget the opposite side of the equation which is strength.
Not the "I'm going to bench 200lbs" type strength, but the musculature that supports movement.
It's quite easy to always focus on stretching, but not build the muscles that support good movement. You can turn yourself into a floppy noodle, which brings on more injury.
The two kinds of strength are correlated and ability to push heavy weights is super useful. In my experience, it helps.
This has been my experience with every sports of weightlifting injury I've had and I'm in my 40s. The body wants to heal or at least compensate in some way. Light activity is often better than rest. I've got a knee that is acting up a little bit but I think I've figured out how to keep it healthy while running.
Please share which stretches helped you.
These are the ones: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2gS8RYc9lus
"Frog Mobility" -- Get on hands and knees, spread knees but keep your feet closer together, rock back towards your heels and forward.
"Frog Cat/Cow" -- Same position as above, but tilt your pelvis; curve your back up then down.
"Tactical Frog" -- I haven't done this one yet, but it is frog mobility but with each rocking forward twist one of your feet up into the air; IOW rock back then as you rock forward keep one knee locked so that your calf/foot stays in the same relative position as you move forward.
these look like they have ... other uses.
It's helpful to combine fitness with fun.
Every physical motion has other uses. (Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/940.)
These may not be the same as the one suggested above, but when I fell back in early 2025, my lower back, discs, spine got wrecked. I was sent to Physical therapy and was giving exercises similar to these which helped me, may help you. Keep in mind that it is not a cure... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wAw1-1MHa4
I'm constantly telling people to look up physical therapy movements/stretches for whatever they've got going on. Slept wrong? Tweaked your neck? You absolutely do NOT have to suffer with that until it goes away on its own, they can show you how to fix it.
If your insurance covers it, go see one! Them being able to actually see and feel what's going on specifically with you makes them markedly better at their jobs.
Can’t find the link now but a very comprehensive analysis of surgery vs physiotherapy for lower back issues found that physiotherapy was as effective as invasive, often dangerous spinal surgery. The only difference was time - surgery with recovery + recovery physio fixed the pain in about 4-6 months, while physiotherapy took 18-24 months
But on the plus side, physiotherapy is “free”, has no real risk, and most people who opted for the physiotherapy path found that they were happier and also fixed a lot of other pains simply because of regular stretching and exercise
I f'd my knees running track in HS - i suspect some kind of structural problem that alters the way my knees move. Sr year wsa awful, i was just about crawling to class in the morning. MRIs showed nothing and I learned to live with it and eventually it got better when I stopped running.
10ish years later I had started riding my bike a lot during the dotcom explosion induced downtime, I kept it up after I was employed again. Knee pain came back. Went to the ortho again, this time was told "oh you have a torn meniscus, lets go fix it.
So I went under and woke up to be told that my meniscus was fine, and that I had worn grooves through the cartilage and into the bone - doc told me to never run, jump, ski, ride, etc. I was to sit on the couch.
Somehow I ended up taking karate, and the knees hurt for a bit, but the stretching we did helped loosen up my hams and quads. It didnt make the knee pain go away, but it made it tolerable in that it no longer affected my day to day.
When you're a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Good thing you were able to find a good alternative solution. I suspect a lot of ailments could be resolved with non-medical interventions, but there's little money to be made there and also, a lot of people want the perceived "easier" way out.
I had a similar thing happen. What multiple doctor visits could not even diagnose was fixed with resistance band side walks.
Can you please share which stretches helped?
Something similar was done in a sheep model:
"A bioactive supramolecular and covalent polymer scaffold for cartilage repair in a sheep model" - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2405454121
"Abstract: Regeneration of hyaline cartilage in human-sized joints remains a clinical challenge, and it is a critical unmet need that would contribute to longer healthspans. Injectable scaffolds for cartilage repair that integrate both bioactivity and sufficiently robust physical properties to withstand joint stresses offer a promising strategy. We report here on a hybrid biomaterial that combines a bioactive peptide amphiphile supramolecular polymer that specifically binds the chondrogenic cytokine transforming growth factor β-1 (TGFβ-1) and crosslinked hyaluronic acid microgels that drive formation of filament bundles, a hierarchical motif common in natural musculoskeletal tissues. The scaffold is an injectable slurry that generates a porous rubbery material when exposed to calcium ions once placed in cartilage defects. The hybrid material was found to support in vitro chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated stem cells in response to sustained delivery of TGFβ-1. Using a sheep model, we implanted the scaffold in shallow osteochondral defects and found it can remain localized in mechanically active joints. Evaluation of resected joints showed significantly improved repair of hyaline cartilage in osteochondral defects injected with the scaffold relative to defects injected with the growth factor alone, including implantation in the load-bearing femoral condyle. These results demonstrate the potential of the hybrid biomimetic scaffold as a niche to favor cartilage repair in mechanically active joints using a clinically relevant large-animal model."
> Osteoarthritis occurs when a joint is stressed by aging, injury or obesity. The chondrocytes begin to release pro-inflammatory molecules and to break down collagen, which is the primary structural protein of cartilage. When collagen is lost, the cartilage thins and softens; the accompanying inflammation causes the joint swelling and pain that are hallmarks of the disease.
Collagen synthesis in the human body can be aided by hydrolyzed collagen, Vitamin C, zinc and copper.
A recent meta analysis suggests the positive results for collagen are mostly funding bias. See discussion here:
https://massresearchreview.com/2025/09/29/connecting-the-dot...
I have been taking collagen, but will likely stop.
Among endurance athletes collagen supplements have become increasingly popular the past couple years -- from what I understand the evidence is kind of mixed though
e.g. https://thefeed.com/products/pillar-performance-collagen-1?v...
I don't get what's the supposed mechanism of action here. Collagen is a hard to digest protein and it has to get digested to be processed and then it's no longer collagen. Why not just eat any other protein source instead?
Yes, that seems to sort of be the criticism and mixed results. Although not everyone has a complete protein diet so theoretically although it breaks down the idea is you then have all the things you need, should your body choose to use it to build collagen.
But I agree, I'd rather start solving deficiencies at the diet level than the supplement level and haven't integrated collagen personally so far.
TBH I suspect marketing plays a big role. "Collagen = good, therefore just buy it and eat it" makes logical sense if you don't actually do any research first.
Different protein sources have different amino acid compositions and they have different effects on the body.
Still, if you eat enough complete protein sources you'll have all the amino acids you need.
Maybe, maybe not. It would depend on a variety of factors including the activities you do, your age, etc. Maybe athletes need more collagen compared to people who don’t exercise, etc, etc.
Also complete protein sources are definitely not easy to get. Good luck if you have dietary constraints.
Notably, whey is a complete protein source and very easy to get, while collagen is a crappy source.
> Also complete protein sources are definitely not easy to get.
... all of the essential amino acids? What is difficult about that?
I was going to say that too, thanks for beating me to it!
Evidence seems to be lacking though. Do you have any specific source in mind?
There's very good evidence coming out of UC Davis.
they have MRIs, decent experimental evidence, and biochemical explanations.
They have published quite a few papers over the years.
You can start here, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9267994/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5183725/
Look up Keith Baar.
Keith Baar's videos on YT have helped me a lot; both for treating my knee pain and for increasing overall muscle strength. The videos tell you how to heal or strengthen your tendons, ligaments, and muscles.
I found that second link interesting although it raised the question of why gelatin versus amino acids in general.
However neither link seems to have anything to do with UC Davis or biochemical mechanisms related to collagen supplementation. I realize that it probably wasn't your intent but the mismatch leaves me feeling vaguely as though you tried to deceive me there.
As I've gotten older, my knees have been the main signal letting me know. I tore my meniscus years ago. This is exciting news for people like me.
The joint at the base of my thumb started telling me it's 60 years old. I stopped being able to open jars easily last year and would like to get my grip strength back.
Broke this one in a motorcycle accident and I'm really, really not looking forward to the late life implications of it.
> The joint at the base of my thumb started telling me it's 60 years old
This is my biggest apprehension. I've become quite a good guitarist, and I know that can't last forever. Getting my accomplishments in while I can.
Your accomplishments? For me playing music is for joy, not for status
Ironically, last year i decided to relearn piano after some 40 years. Learned one piece (a pretty good one, fortunately) and a once a day play triggered it. So. It's more like once every 2-3 weeks now, not long enough to forget, but long enough to keep the thumb feeling all right.
You better. I have an uncle who was a very accomplished pianist and who can't play anymore due to arthritis. Play the paint off it while you can.
I've torn mine as well and am yet to get it repaired. Did you get surgery? Anything working for you?
I got surgery about 8 years ago, after 10 years of on/off knee pain that I ignored. I had locking in the knee so I needed to so something so I could walk. Surgery was fine, they opened me up and my meniscus was all stringy as if you cracked an egg in boiling water, so no fixing it and they cut off 50% of my meniscus. I recovered quite easily, stupidly did not do any formal physio but proceeded to do mostly moderately heavy lifting with some light running and cycling (very light cardio for the runners around, but still something compared to couch potatoes). Since about 2 years I have pain and a pressure in the knee, not very intense pain but more unsettling. Pain also seems to show up after some sort of activity threshold and the effort accumulates. I eventually took an MRI about a month ago, I have first to second degree condroathy. A couple of physio sessions seemed to help but I need to take the time to do a full physio cycle. I can't wait for cartilage Regen tech. It's very nice being physically active. Worst case, I use it until I can't anymore, do a knee replacement and after that fails hop on one leg as a pirate.
My hope to pull another 15 years of functional use out of it, enough to do fun activities with my son.
Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx6649
The supplementary material is freely available here:
https://www.science.org/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.112...
It identifies the compound used as SW033291. Searching for it on clinicaltrials.gov gives no hits.
It does , however, provide the ApexBio catalog number A8709, which is this 15-PGDH inhibitor:
https://www.apexbt.com/sw033291.html
Turns out the pain in my knee was a latent infection with staph aureus, forming small nubs under the skin. Debrided the skin, removing the nubs, applied 3% doyiciclin creme and pain is gone. This for a knee with 2 operations before and teo doctors saying I need a replacement. Doctors are mostly unhelpful idiots imho.
Glad to hear you’re feeling better! How did you find out the root cause and treatment?
Yea, same here, following the studies had helped me fix a 18 year old shoulder tendon issue.
I owe that research group a lot.
What happened to you? Might anything you have learned help me? Recommended reading?
I too have a shoulder tendon issue: 14 months ago a loud one-time "pop" occurred while doing a simple external rotation shoulder exercise with very light weight. I immediately lost most strength lhs and the shoulder felt very loose. More than a year later + 1 steroid shot my shoulder is much better but still loose.
oh, what a time to be a mouse!
Lots of folks are pointing this out, but it's not like there isn't evidence to suggest this will also apply to humans.
> Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.
Too bad that as a mouse you die after two years tops.
Top comment my whiskered friend.
I wonder if this would apply to backs/back injuries. This is super exciting, if it pans out. I can't wait for the follow up research. A pill that 'just works' is an amazing thing. Loosing mobility later in life leads to a lot of problems so directly attacking the cause of (a lot) of mobility loss is really great to see.
I run regularly. Some years back I switched from a heel strike stride to a ball-of-foot strike. It greatly reduced the shock load on my knees and hips. It's the same gait you'd naturally do if you took off your shoe and ran barefoot.
Curious, does anyone know if this might also apply to tendons? I've had patella tendonitis for years (jumpers knee) and have tried everything (isometrics, shockwave, PRP injections, etc...).
ATG exercises have helped me with my knee pain. Their exercises help to strengthen the cartilage and ligaments around the knee.
In some contexts (e.g., pancreas), 15-PGDH inhibition can promote tumor growth by increasing specific signaling.
Cartilage is really the final frontier of health. If it wasn’t for joints going bad, people could stay very active and fit pretty much all their life, with consistent exercise and healthy weight.
I'd say spinal and optic nerve regeneration is more "final" than cartilage.
Well yea but not in terms of the amount of lives that will be improved.
Hold your humans: in mice!
At this rate we're going to have mice outliving humans by 2100
“A pill-based version of the same therapy is already being tested in clinical trials aimed at treating muscle weakness associated with aging.”
They don't say what is injected, calling it only a "gerozyme inhibitor". Original article appears to be:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx6649
Inhibition of 15-hydroxy prostaglandin dehydrogenase promotes cartilage regeneration Mamta Singla https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6408-1167, Yu Xin Wang https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8440-9388, Elena Monti https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3767-0855, Yudhishtar Bedi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1213-4116, [...] , and Nidhi Bhutani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7494-5870
FTFA: "Both systemic and local inhibition of 15-PGDH with a small molecule inhibitor (PGDHi) led to regeneration of articular cartilage and reduction in OA-associated pain."
"PGDHi" is a name for both the process "15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibition" and any inhibitor.
This link(a PDF file) shows PGDHi's are powerful stuff:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2025/04/17/202...
"PGDHi" could be prostaglandin-E2 (dinoprostone):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostaglandin_E2
which was used in:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/06/muscle-aging....
I've been having good results with recovering my knee's cartilage with Flexofytol, which is based on Boswellia Serrata and curcuma.
I would love this for some of my finger joints beat up from decades of typing.
I would say mechanical keyboard (used ErgoDox for years, now I use a Lily58). Now I would say learn how to make AI type for you.
Big fan of my Dygma Defy and I've been using WisprFlow super heavily this last year, but the immediacy of typing is still hard to beat. But yeah, I hope the voice tools keep getting better, they've been a real life-saver so far and fortunately I'm a very fast talker.
Have you tried mechanical keyboards? They were a life saver for me. I can type more than 100k keystrokes/day without any pain whatsoever.
Yep. On a keyboard with 8 thumb cluster keys per side, and custom 35g switches to lower the force needed to actuate, that helped a lot, but still not enough to be pain-free. Unfortunately once the damage is done on certain joints you can only do so much short of not using those fingers at all. 30 years of hammering keys pretty hard eventually catch up to you.
The next best thing then is to try weight lifting exercises for the hands. This also helps a lot because it strengthens the muscle.
You should try 20g springs, they are really good for typing. I also removed the keycaps and replaced them with small pieces of band-aid on top of the switch stems which also helped. Also dictating plain text like comments and typing only for correcting errors in dictation and for short actions is better. It's easier to press a button rather than say a lengthy command, because vocal cords can also be damaged by speaking too much.
Where have you been able to find ultralight springs available to consumers? I was looking into this last week and the 10-20g ones were only available straight from the factory in South Korea with shipping costing $200... I was happy to get them and swap them out, but that shipping pricetag was too much of a highway robbery.
Would appreciate any advice here :)
And, intrigued about the idea of not using key switches at all. Are there any aftermarket alternatives available online for "keycaps" that are better at softening the impact on the finger, something softer and bouncier perhaps? Seems like something people would have experimented with.
My body is a mess! Where do I sign up :)
What is the relation between 15-PGDH and NAD+ [1]?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPGD
Does anyone have any idea if you have arthritis what you can do to manage the symptoms? I figure there are some people here that researched it relatively well.
Arthritis is a general term; need narrow down for useful advice on managing symptoms.
Two most common types are osteoarthritis (wear-and-tear associated with aging and/or injuries) and rheumatoid arthritis (autoimmune).
I only know about age-related knee osteoarthritis to try to help my mom manage her symptoms, so I'll share my understanding of treating that.
High ROI, low cost: - weight management. Extra lbs are extra stress on the knees, plus I suspect chronic inflammation associated with being overweight can exacerbate arthritis independent of mechanical stress. - exercise, specifically low impact cardio and any pain-free strength/hypertrophy work targeting the musculature around the knees (mainly quads).
Variable ROI, low cost: - NSAIDs, specifically topical to focus on treatment area and reduce impact on GI system/kidneys. - curcumin, mixed evidence but some people report benefits.
Variable ROI, high cost: - PRP injections. Apparently the quality on these varies dramatically by provider. Would recommend doing research and comparing multiple providers if possible. - Knee replacement. Far from a panacea; you'll lose range of motion forever, plus plenty of other trade-offs. Most people recommend putting this off for as long as possible.
Also interesting is low dose radiation treatment for knee OA. More affordable than other procedures and has some promising research.
Not much else on the novel treatment front that I've found. Curious if anyone thinks I've missed anything worthwhile.
I think it really depends on your age and underlying cause.
Everyone with it I've ever talked to said staying moving is important: "motion is lotion."
My elderly family use lots of anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) and one of them is on Prednisone.
Two of my friends with rheumatoid arthritis (only in their 30's) are on an injectable immunotherapies (DMARDs) that have been life changing for them.
Disclaimer: not a doctor, just have lots of sore friends/family and an interest in this stuff since I have a torn ACL and fear the future.
I've had arthrosis in both knees for several years (due to a combination of youthful sports injuries and overweight). A few years ago I saw a knee specialist who predicted I was due for knee replacement sometime soon.
On the advice of a massage therapist I instead started a habit of using a home cycling machine for half an hour each morning. So far, it has worked wonders for me, and I hope I can hold on for a decade more, by which time the injection mentioned in the article might be ready for humans.
Diclofenac (voltaren) is a topical NSAID that can be useful for managing symptoms. Over the counter in the US.
Hey, if they can commercialize this into a real therapy, that would be amazing.
Knee replacement surgeons should be worried. Both my father and FIL had their knees replaced.
afaik surgeons are able to perform quite a few types of surgeries, obviously the ones working on brains more advanced than ones working on knees it's probably only a few years to transition to a different type of category.
I'd like to think orthopedists would rather be overjoyed at this. My wife had her knee and hip done by a cracking orthopedist, and his primary concern was her quality of life. He even went to the state physicians' board to argue that her hip surgery should be considered necessary rather than elective for purposes of COVID restrictions, so that we could get it done months before it was originally scheduled.
Could the same be applied to arthritic ankles?
Almost certainly. Ankles also rely upon hyaline cartilage (as opposed to fibrocartilage). I found this out when I had microfracture surgery for a bad ankle injury.
Looking forward to this therapy. My fibrocartilage is wearing out!
Here for the same question! Broke my left ankle three times as a football (soccer) playing youth who cared not for rehab! Now stuck with limited range of monitor and arthritis in my foot / ankle.
JAK-STAT inhibitors also downregulate 15PGDH, and in humans
they are just insanely expensive in the USA because of drug patents
in mice
Always a good call out, but also:
> Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.
Also interesting that trials for the blocker have been successful in humans to restore muscle growth.
Good, but what does it mean for tissue samples to function normally? Function as what?
let me be excited for things!