Adequate intake of fiber-rich foods may help guard
against the development of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis and reduce the pain associated with disease.
This study evaluated the relationship between regular consumption of high-fiber diets and knee osteoarthritis risk. Researchers tracked the dietary fiber intake, examined the knee radiographs, and reviewed the arthritis symptom reports of 6,064 subjects recruited from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) and the Framingham Offspring Osteoarthritis Study.
The team of investigators observed a protective association between high dietary ingestion of fiber-rich foods and symptomatic osteoarthritis in both cohorts and a reduction in knee pain among regular consumers of high-fiber diets in the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort. On the other hand, increased consumption of foods with high fiber content was found to have no significant effect on radiographic osteoarthritis risk in this study. The findings of this study show that generous intake of high-fiber diets may contribute positively to the prevention of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis and the reduction of pain associated with the disease.