Mij
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Exercise may not be the osteoarthritis game-changer many hoped it was
Date: February 25, 2026
Source: BMJ Group
Summary: A sweeping new analysis of the evidence suggests that exercise therapy — long promoted as a first-line treatment for osteoarthritis — may offer only small and short-lived relief, and in some cases might be no better than doing nothing at all. After reviewing dozens of clinical trials involving more than 13,000 participants, researchers found that benefits for knee osteoarthritis pain were minimal and tended to shrink in larger or longer-term studies.
A sweeping (umbrella) systematic review and pooled analysis published in the open access journal RMD Open suggests that exercise therapy may provide only minimal and short lived relief from osteoarthritis symptoms. In some cases, the benefits may be little different from receiving no treatment at all.
Study
Date: February 25, 2026
Source: BMJ Group
Summary: A sweeping new analysis of the evidence suggests that exercise therapy — long promoted as a first-line treatment for osteoarthritis — may offer only small and short-lived relief, and in some cases might be no better than doing nothing at all. After reviewing dozens of clinical trials involving more than 13,000 participants, researchers found that benefits for knee osteoarthritis pain were minimal and tended to shrink in larger or longer-term studies.
A sweeping (umbrella) systematic review and pooled analysis published in the open access journal RMD Open suggests that exercise therapy may provide only minimal and short lived relief from osteoarthritis symptoms. In some cases, the benefits may be little different from receiving no treatment at all.
Study
