Can weight loss and exercise help women stave off osteoarthritis?

WFU researchers receive $17.1 million to help women lose weight, avoid debilitating knee condition

Professor Steve Messier of the Department of Health and Exercise Science, who will lead the five-year study as principal investigator (PI), has conducted more than 30 years of research into how diet and exercise can reduce pain and increase function in people who have developed osteoarthritis. As there is no cure for the condition, he has turned his attention to prevention – and whether proven treatments instead can be used to stop the disease from occurring.

Professor Shannon Mihalko will serve as the Winston-Salem site PI as well as the TOPS coordinating behavioral psychologist, and Professor Gary Miller is the head nutritionist. Both teach in the Department of Health and Exercise Science.

This initiative is aptly named The Osteoarthritis Prevention Study, or TOPS.