I feel obliged to link to this article since knee arthritis is one of the most studied uses for acupuncture and because I have a number of marathon runners as patients. The upshot seems to be that there is no conclusive evidence that marathons hurt your knees. In fact, active participants had less cartilage loss in their knees than sedentary counterparts. The active ones also had more bone spurs, and some microscopic changes in the cartilage, but their significance is uncertain and could be a positive adaptation. I like this conclusion and it makes sense to me, frankly. Of course any one person can have dramatically different outcomes, and I can’t help wonder if the conditions under which you run makes a difference too.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/phys-ed-do-marathons-wreck-your-knees/
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