Article: Regular gym visits 'can wear out your hips in middle age'; New hips: Tracy Oppenheim, 46.

Byline: Nick Harding

INTENSIVE gym use is creating a crippled generation in need of hip replacements in middle age, a leading surgeon has warned.

Growing numbers of men and women in their early 40s have worn out their joints, according to orthopaedics consultant Robert Marston.

He believes the obsession with high-impact forms of exercise - such as running on machines and step aerobics - is to blame.

Mr Marston, of the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in northwest London, said that he now treats at least five times more patients in their 40s and 50s than he did ten or 15 years ago.

The number of hip replacements has been increasing steadily since 2002 ...

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