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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Even for the overweight, regular moderate exercise does not hasten or delay the onset of osteoarthritis of the knee in older individuals, new research reveals.

The finding undercuts the notion that exercise might have a protective effect against osteoarthritis. However, at the same time, it suggests that those already burdened with an elevated risk, such as overweight seniors, can safely remain active.

"There was fear that weight-bearing exercise among overweight people might put the very people who need it most at risk of getting knee arthritis and knee pain, but this study suggests that is not the case," said study author Dr. David T. Felson, chief of Boston University's Clinical Epidemiology Research Training Unit. "There shouldn't be any concern."

The findings are published in the February issue of Arthritis Care & Research.

According to the National Institutes of Health, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the United States, affecting more than 12 percent of the population.

The painful degenerative joint disease is characterized by a breakdown of the shock-absorbing cartilage that shields bones where they contact joints. Osteoarthritis is more prevalent among the elderly, especially women, but it can also develop among younger men and women.

In their study, Felson and his colleagues tracked the exercise habits and incidence of knee osteoarthritis for almost 1,300 men and women in Massachusetts. The study lasted for more than a decade, with participants averaging just over 53 years of age at the trial's outset.

Initial activity surveys were completed in 1991 and 1992 to assess the types and intensity of regular exercise being practiced. In 1993 and 1994, and once again from 2002 to 2005, the researchers took knee X-rays and had participants fill out knee function questionnaires. Just over one-quarter of the participants had already developed some form of knee pain by 1993-1994.

The researchers found that most of the men and women said they walked regularly for exercise.

However, by measuring "joint space loss" -- an apparent indicator of knee cartilage loss -- they found that disease onset was neither positively nor negatively influenced by physical activity.

The lack of a relationship between osteoarthritis and exercise held up regardless of whether the individual walked less than six miles per week or more, or whether or not they worked up a sweat.

Far fewer (68) of the participants either ran or jogged, but even this form of exercise didn't appear to increase or decrease their risk for developing osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis risk didn't rise or fall in connection with any other moderate level of activity, either, the researchers said.

This held true even for participants who were overweight. Even though such relatively out-of-shape individuals were already at a higher risk for developing osteoarthritis, routine exercise did not contribute to, or help reduce, their overall risk for the disease.

Felson said his team focused primarily on the effects of moderate, rather than aggressive, exercise. But the study showed that this type of moderate physical activity is safe for older Americans when it comes to osteoarthritis risk.

"I do think this is a case where the glass is probably more half full than it is half empty," said Felson, who is also professor of medicine and public health at Boston University's School of Medicine and School of Public Health. "Yes, there have been advocates who have suggested that regular exercise might be protective against knee osteoarthritis, and that doesn't appear to be the case. But, the good news is that exercise is safe for people who are older."

Dorothy Dunlop, a research associate professor with the Institute for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, also accented the positive.

"I see the glass full and brimming over, because the literature is bursting with suggestions that moderate physical activity is beneficial in terms of pain and function improvement, and has cardiovascular benefits for all people with and without arthritis," she said.

Dunlop led a study, released earlier this year, that showed that seniors who were already coping with arthritis and who avoided exercise were twice as likely to lose their ability to perform basic tasks such as dressing, bathing, or cooking, compared with more active elderly.

"So, what this new study is telling me is that people can be encouraged to exercise without a concern that this will increase their risk of osteoarthritis," she said. "To me, it's a very important and positive finding which strongly supports physical activity."

More information

For additional information on osteoarthritis, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 14 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers say they've developed a blood test to detect a severe form of enlarged prostate disease (benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH).

BPH symptoms include urgent and frequent urination. In men with severe BPH, these symptoms are more pronounced.

The study of 85 men was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. They found that significantly higher levels of a protein made by the JM-27 gene were associated with severe BPH that's more likely to result in bladder-related complications if left untreated.

The Hopkins team also developed a blood test to detect the JM-27 protein in men with symptoms of severe BPH.

If it receives government approval, this test could be used to identify men with severe BPH at an early state, before they suffer damage to the bladder or urinary tract.

"Our experiments show that the expression of this marker is related to the presence of the severe form of BPH and not to the size of the prostate or to the presence or risk of prostate cancer," team leader Robert Getzenberg said in a prepared statement.

"What we're looking at is two diseases: BPH that produces more mild symptoms and is less likely to lead to bladder and other urinary tract damage and BPH that is highly symptomatic with increased potential to do damage to the bladder," he said.

This new biomarker test correctly identifies about 90 percent of men with severe BPH and incorrectly identifies severe BPH in 23 percent of cases, Getzenberg said.

The study is published in the February issue of the Journal of Urology.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about enlarged prostate.

SATURDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Older Americans face a "double whammy" when it comes to body fat, a new study finds.

Up until age 80, older adults gain fat but lose muscle as they age and, because of the obesity epidemic in the United States, many are already fatter when they enter their older years.

That extra fat increases their risk for arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and disability, said study author Dr. Jingzhong Ding, an assistant professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The findings are published in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The researchers studied body composition changes -- specifically the proportion of fat to lean mass (muscle and organs) -- in 1,786 older adults from 1997 to 2003. The participants were aged 70 to 79 when they enrolled in the study.

"The study provides a better pictures of age-related changes in body composition, and it's not a good picture. It demonstrates that up until age 80, both older men and women gained fat but lost lean mass each year. These age-related changes were compounded by the obesity epidemic," Ding said in a prepared statement.

Ding's team also found the participants who were born later, and therefore spent more years during the period when obesity was on the rise in the United States, had a higher percentage of body fat. For example, a man born in 1927 had about 10 pounds more fat than a man born in 1918.

"The combined effects of aging and the obesity epidemic results in bigger body size and less lean mass among the elderly," Ding said. "This may lead to disability and other illnesses in the elderly, and could be dramatic in the coming years. It points out the great public health importance of developing appropriate interventions that target fat loss while preserving skeletal muscle to prevent disability and other obesity-related illnesses."

More information

The U.S. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has material about healthy aging for older adults.

FRIDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Drugs that block a component of vitamin B3 (also known as niacin) might help slow aging, new research suggests.

A team at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia found that this niacin component, nicotinamide, is able to bind to a specific site on enzymes called sirtuins and inhibit their activity.

When activated, sirtuins can significantly extend the lives of many kinds of organisms, such as yeast, worms and flies. Sirtuins may also be able to control aging-related metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Drugs that block nicotinamide from binding to this specific site on sirtuins might activate the enzymes and boost health, the researchers say.

The study is published in the Feb. 9 issue of Molecular Cell.

"Our findings suggest a new avenue for designing sirtuin-activating drugs," senior author Ronen Marmorstein, a professor in the gene expression and regulation program at Wistar, said in a prepared statement.

"The jury is still out as to whether a drug of this kind might result in longer life in humans, but I'm equally excited by the possibility that such interventions might help counteract age-related health problems like obesity and type 2 diabetes," Marmorstein said.

More information

The U.S. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion offers advice about healthy aging for older adults.