Does sport cause hip and knee arthritis? High impact sports can certainly damage our joints, and some people are more susceptible than others. We don’t fully understand how genetic and environmental factors interact and affect our health, but I see lots of people who have done high impact sport in their teens and early adult life, who have painful hips and knees in their 40s. There was an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph about this last week, in which I was asked to comment. Keeping fit and active helps to reduce the risk of life-threatening illnesses in later life, and the benefits of regular low impact activities such as walking, swimming, going to the gym and cycling far outweigh the risks of damaging our joints. The Swiss AO organization pioneered the technology that we use to fix fractures, and their motto is very pertinent: ‘Life is movement, movement is life’. It’s a bit cheesy but none the worse for that!