The Physical Effects of Long-Term Stress on the body/knees

I feel your pain! I've been running for almost 30-years. When I was in my late 20s...early 30s I typically would log around 2000 miles a year. never had any knee problems. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. In fact about 4- years ago I had an orthopedic tell me to stop running. My knees are bone on bone and at the time I was having a really hard time walking down the stairs. Feeling I had nothing to lose I went to a chiropractor for the first time in my life. Whatever adjustments she has been doing has worked. Well running is not pain free...I am running. I don't run a lot of mileage as I know my knees only have so many miles left. I also take glucosamine daily and have for over a decade. I don't know that chiropractic care and supplements will prolong your knees but I do believe I would not be running today without them.

As far as if running was a contributor to the joint problems with my knees I think it's more genetics. Osteoarthritis runs in my family. My mother had both her knees replaced when she was about 60. I think I'll be looking to get mine replaced around that age as well. Hopefully by then there may be some alternatives to total knee replacement.

You said you'd tried all sorts of diets, so you've probably tried this ... an anti-inflammatory (Paleo even) diet? I have advanced arthritis in my ankles and knees and giving up grains and daily made a huge difference. Of course, it royally screwed up my digestion, but I could walk without pain for the first time in years!!

I agree with the sentiment that it might just be genetic. I have run over 33 years and have never had any problems with my major joints. I did go through a period when I actually took time off of running because of a personal tragedy and during that time my joints were killing me. I started back up running and also became a vegetarian and stopped taking glucosamine, etc., and feel fantastic now at 60 years of age. I would take any doctor's advice that says "quit" with a grain of salt. That is usually what they say when they are too lazy to get to the source of the problem or figure out a solution to fix it.

Wait, you stopped taking glucosamine? I thought that was supposedone to help your joints.

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To my knowledge the link is not particularly strong. Was just thinking about this as was reading the Everest Base Camp thread. There's actually been research done on the porters there (who are often quite small and carry close to their body weight) and they aren't nearly as prone to arthritis and long-term deformity as one would suppose. Many runners and other athletes, even sedentary people, show subtle signs of damage on MRI's but have no symptoms; others who have quite normal MRI's can have severe symptoms. I personally have been running for 35 years and can only recall my knees hurting a few times.

The body does (well, should) adapt to a lot. That being said, there are probably things you could do to help. Not sure which you have tried--weight loss, doing more running on soft surfaces, making sure your shoes are right for your size/training/biomechanics, modifying diet, checking to rule out something like Lyme disease or another autoimmune disease, running slower, etc. I recently saw some research that said chemicals in microwave popcorn and nonstick pans can trigger inflammation and arthritis in susceptible people--might be worth a try to get rid of those. I've personally had a few episodes of joint pain that seemed linked to a recent illness with fever or unusual stress--not running-related as was not running much at the time and not in running-related joints. So it seems there are lots of immune-related causes in some people, not just running or other repeated use, that can be the culprit.

i havent tried Paleo but been looking at it