TY - JOUR T1 - Breaking into a Sweat... and Risk of Osteoarthritis! JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 188 LP - 190 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.101326 VL - 38 IS - 2 AU - ALLAN C. GELBER Y1 - 2011/02/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/38/2/188.abstract N2 - Osteoarthritis (OA) remains a highly prevalent disorder, both in North America and globally1,2,3. According to the US National Arthritis Data Workgroup, approximately 27 million Americans were estimated, based on the 2005 population size, to have clinical evidence of OA1. Given that the prevalence of OA rises with increasing age, the national burden of OA continues to expand4.When moderate to severe OA affects the lower extremity, particularly at the knee and hip joints, the related pain and stiffness has a tremendous influence upon virtually all ambulatory activities involved in daily living5. Further, in the circumstance when symptoms resulting from joint space narrowing, cartilage degeneration, and osteophyte formation become inadequately controlled by conventional nonmedicinal and pharmacologic interventions, the patient and physician, working together, broach the subject of surgical intervention to correct the underlying joint disorder. They seek resolution to the pain and functional impairment, and an optimal restoration to a full, vital functional capacity7.Over the last 50 years, several notable demographic variables and modifiable host factors have been examined as potential risk factors for incident and prevalent OA. For example, there is clear evidence from population-based studies that age is related to OA risk. Not only are older adults at greater risk than their younger counterparts to develop OA, but the risk of incident OA, specifically at the knee, continues to rise into the septuagenarian and octogenarian decades of the life span4. In addition, gender is clearly related to risk of disease, with women experiencing higher rates of OA than men, at the hand, knee, and hip joints, after age 40 and beyond1. … Address correspondence to Dr. Gelber. E-mail: agelber{at}jhmi.edu ER -