Obese people who lose a substantial amount of weight can significantly slow the degeneration of their knee cartilage according to a new study. Obesity is a major risk factor for osteoarthritis a degenerative joint disease. Degenerative joint disease is a major cause of pain and disability in our population and obesity is a significant risk factor said the study's lead author Alexandra Gersing from University of California-San Francisco. Gersing and colleagues investigated the association between different degrees of weight loss and the progression of knee cartilage degeneration in 506 overweight and obese patients. The patients either had mild to moderate
