Knee osteoarthritis risk in non-industrial societies undergoing an energy balance transition: evidence from the indigenous Tarahumara of Mexico.

ABSTRACT: Non-industrial societies with low energy balance levels are expected to be less vulnerable than industrial societies to diseases associated with obesity including knee osteoarthritis. However, as non-industrial societies undergo rapid lifestyle changes that promote positive energy balance, individuals whose metabolisms are adapted to energetic scarcity are encountering greater energy abundance, increasing their propensity to accumulate abdominal adipose tissue and thus potentially their sensitivity to obesity-related diseases.

Objectives

Here, we propose that knee osteoarthritis is one such disease for which susceptibility is amplified by this energy balance transition.

Methods

Support for our hypothesis comes from comparisons of knee radiographs, knee pain and anthropometry

SUBMITTER: Wallace IJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10609556 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature