Eat This Diet to Lower Your Odds for Painful Gout

WEDNESDAY, May 10, 2017 -- Warding off the joint pain of gout may be as easy as eating right, a new study suggests.

Gout, a joint disease that causes extreme pain and swelling, is caused by excess uric acid in the blood. It's the most common form of inflammatory arthritis, and its incidence has risen among Americans over recent decades, Harvard researchers noted.

Do Your Knees Crackle and Pop?

FRIDAY, May 5, 2017 -- Knees that "pop," "click" or "crackle" may sometimes be headed toward arthritis in the near future, a new study suggests.

It's common for the knees to get a little noisy on occasion, and hearing a "crack" during your yoga class is probably not something to worry about, experts say.

Can Dropping Some Weight Save Your Knees?

TUESDAY, May 2, 2017 -- Knocking off some extra pounds might take a harmful load off your knees, researchers report.

Obese and overweight people who lost 5 percent or more of their weight over four years saw less degeneration of their knee cartilage compared with people whose weight stayed stable.

Obesity May Make Rheumatoid Arthritis Tough to Spot, Track

MONDAY, April 10, 2017 -- Blood tests to diagnose and monitor rheumatoid arthritis may be thrown off by obesity in women, a new study suggests.

"Physicians might assume that high levels of inflammation mean that a patient has rheumatoid arthritis or that their rheumatoid arthritis requires more treatment, when in fact a mild increase in levels of inflammation could be due to obesity instead," explained study author Dr. Michael George, who's with the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia.

Knee Replacement Doesn't Always Pay, Researchers Say

TUESDAY, March 28, 2017 -- Knee replacement surgery isn't always a game changer, according to a new study that raises questions about the increasingly common procedure.

The patients who benefit most have severe osteoarthritis. But for people with milder symptoms, the expense might not be justified, researchers determined.