
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994                   TAG: 9410250087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: BALTIMORE                                LENGTH: Short

EXTRA BODY FAT IN 20S BOOSTS RISK OF ARTHRITIS

People who carry extra pounds of body fat in their 20s greatly increase their risk of developing painful arthritis of the knees and hips decades later, a researcher from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said Monday.

The bad news about body weight does not apply only to people who are obese. Those who are moderately overweight face a higher risk of developing arthritis, too, but the danger grows worse as a person's weight increases.

Dr. Allan C. Gelber, a Hopkins rheumatologist, said each increment of 20 pounds boosts a person's chances of developing arthritis by 50 percent.

Doctors long have suspected that heavier people inflict extra wear and tear on their weight-bearing joints, causing cartilage to thin out and in some cases disappear. This, however, was the first study to show that heft in a person's 20s can result in arthritis many years later.

Weight sets in motion a process of steady deterioration that may not be felt until the cartilage finally wears out in a person's 50s, 60s, or beyond. It may take several decades for the knee cartilage, initially as thick as the tip of an index finger, to grind away to nothing.

Gelber's study focused on osteoarthritis - a painful condition caused by the loss of cartilage, the tough tissue that buffers bones meeting in a joint. Without cartilage, the joints become swollen, stiff and painful. The disease afflicts about a third of all people over age 65.

by CNB