Health: Knee Replacement May Be a Lifesaver for Some

In a sweeping study of Medicare records, researchers from Philadelphia and Menlo Park, Calif., examined the effects of joint replacement among nearly 135,000 patients with new diagnoses of osteoarthritis of the knee from 1997 to 2009. About 54,000 opted for knee replacement; 81,000 did not.

Three years after diagnosis, the knee replacement patients had an 11% lower risk of heart failure. And after seven years, their risk of dying for any reason was 50% lower.

For the motivated patient, it allows them to walk through that portal and become better conditioned and lose weight, he said. It's not a weight-reduction program. It's a potential avenue to improve your level of fitness, weight, cardiovascular health and mental health.

For more, see Knee Replacement May Be a Lifesaver for Some by Tara Parker-Pope, February 27, 2012 at NYTimes.com.