Joint pain

Joint is a common complaint of people who are overweight or obese. Most times this pain is localized in the knees and ankles and is caused by arthritis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that one in five people in the United States have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis. In obese people, however, the rate increases to one in three people. In fact, osteoarthritis affects about 27 million people in the United States.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, obesity increases the risk for getting arthritis and makes arthritis worse. Specifically, obese people have an increased risk of suffering from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Both are debilitating conditions that cause severe pain localized in the joints, swelling, and potentially even bone spurs.

Osteoarthritis has a clear link to obesity because, according to the Arthritis Foundation, the more weight that a joint has to support, the more stressed the joint becomes, wearing it down and damaging it over time. Since every pound of excess weight exerts about four times that in extra pressure on the knees, the knees of obese people undergo immense stress as their being 50 or 100 pounds overweight can accumulate to having 200 or 400 pounds of extra pressure on their knees. The tremendous amount of pressure and stress damages joints to the point that, after years of wear and tear, people loose their ability to walk without pain and difficulty.

According to the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center, people in the highest 20% of body weight are 10 times more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis than those in the lowest 20% for body weight. Also, overweight women have nearly 4 times the risk of knee osteoarthritis; for overweight men the risk is 5 times greater. This data only further proves that obesity and arthritis are intimately related to one another. Since even a small reduction in weight can drastically reduce the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis, it is important that overweight people start a weight loss journey, which may include a surgical option like that at New You Sleeve. Having weight loss surgery will not only give you more freedom to live the way you would like, but it will also be a step towards eliminating the excruciating pain suffered from arthritis caused by obesity , not to mention the many other health benefits of weight loss.-Jamie Clarke