I don't know for sure but I assume so. I know one knee showed on the x-ray that on one side it was bone against bone. Not the whole joint, although the cartilage quantity was low in the rest of the joint area. So the cartilage was definitely damaged. Dr Paul Mason had a video I posted a while back that talked about the pain in the knees does not come from the slick cartilage but from the bone underneath. And if a persons metabolic health is better there is less inflammation and it is the inflammation that causes the pain. I presume my diet change caused the decrease in inflammation and thus the elimination of pain. I am still not a 20 year old but I no longer suffer nearly all the time and pain in either knee is 98% gone. Once in a while I will feel just a tinge for a short period or if I turn a certain way. But basically it is gone.

Reminds me of another thing that no longer hurts. I had a joint in my little finger, the joint closest to the end of the finger, that at times would become so sensitive that just the slightest tap on it would almost bring tears to my eyes. In general it did not hurt even during work. But just the slightest tap on only the outside of that joint and man what pain. It did not get that way all the time. Only occasionally. I never knew if it was arthritis or gout of what. It just came and went. I never notice it any more. Just one of a big number of health changes I have noticed since getting most of the carbs out of my diabetic diet.