Obesity and Chronic Pain: What is the connection?
Cindy Perlin, LCSW
CEO, Alternative Pain Treatment Directory, Marketing for holistic practitioners, chronic pain expert, author
By: Kyra Clancy
Obesity and Chronic pain are both serious health problems. Obesity is linked to various health issues like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension, but its relationship with chronic pain isn’t always highlighted in these discussions. In reality, the higher a person’s body mass index (BMI), the more likely they are to experience high pain severity and have pain interfere with their daily lives. BMI measures if someone's weight is healthy based on height and weight. Compared to people with a normal BMI, those whose BMI falls under obesity—a BMI of 30 and over—are also less tolerant of pain, making their day-to-day activities (including those for health and weight management) more difficult. Calculate your BMI HERE
Therefore, further understanding the connection between obesity and chronic pain is essential for preventing health complications and finding the best treatment and help for those struggling. Here’s how the two are linked and how you can address the chronic pain caused by obesity:
The connection between obesity and chronic pain
Chronic pain or obesity can encourage the development of the other. For starters, a heavier body weight puts excessive pressure and swelling on a person’s joints, causing the cartilage to break down. Besides the extra stress, conditions like osteoarthritis can be made worse due to fat deposition, insulin resistance, and poor immune system responses that can often come with obesity. With obesity limiting mobility and bodily functions necessary for maintaining a healthy weight, the constant strain on the body can worsen, making it more challenging for someone to lose weight and manage chronic pain. Obesity also makes the pain more intense, adding an extra layer of difficulty for someone trying to manage their weight.
Meanwhile, chronic pain makes healthy lifestyle habits necessary for weight management, such as physical activity, much harder. A person of average weight who develops a chronic pain condition may become obese due to the strain on their body, which makes it harder to exercise and pursue other healthy lifestyle habits. The mental toll of the condition and pain can also be a factor in weight gain, with binge-eating behaviors being used for comfort. The cycle of obesity causing or worsening chronic pain, and that pain driving or worsening obesity, can be highly challenging to manage and break out of.
In addition, medications that are often prescribed for chronic pain, including gabapentin, antidepressants, and corticosteroids like prednisone, can cause weight gain and other adverse effects in many people while offering very little in the way of pain relief.
Managing chronic pain caused by obesity
Managing and treating chronic pain can involve addressing obesity first. Healthy Lifestyle choices such as diet, are crucial to weight loss and reducing chronic pain-related issues. An anti-inflammatory diet can relieve pain for those with chronic pain conditions such as arthritis or fibromyalgia. Anti-inflammatory foods like fresh fruit, leafy greens, and fatty fish are also high in nutritional content, allowing people with obesity to reap the health benefits of weight reduction.
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Besides eating more anti-inflammatory foods and meals, reducing your consumption of foods that trigger inflammation is also essential. Added sugars from sweets and soda, saturated and trans fats from red meat and oils, and added sodium from excess salt are inflammatory and detrimental to your health and weight, making it harder to deal with pain. However, you don't need to shop organic or go to a vegan dining spot to eat healthy meals; cooking them yourself can be a great way to manage obesity and chronic pain.
Cooking for weight loss doesn’t need to be fancy, complicated, or aesthetically pleasing. For example, home-cooked meals are likely lower in calories, added sugar, and sodium compared to restaurant meals. You can be pickier about what goes into your food and make necessary adjustments to recipes to ramp up their nutritional value. For example, you can swap out excess salt for herbs and spices to flavor your food or use whole grains instead of refined carbohydrates to increase your meals' fiber.
Creating a healthy meal plan for the week revolving around nutritious and balanced meals can also help you stay on track. You can get a head start on cooking during weekends, making meals in batches to consume throughout the week. You can even buy pre-washed or cut fruits and vegetables, as they don't require extra steps to prepare them. If you're dealing with chronic pain, reducing the time spent in the kitchen can also be easier on the body; you can reap the benefits of home-cooked healthy meals without aggravating your joints or limbs.
Even with a meal plan or workout schedule, staying consistent or resisting triggers that make you fall back into old habits can be difficult. Addressing obesity and chronic pain is also a mental journey, which may require you to pursue interventions aside from diet and exercise to help you lose weight for pain relief. Integrating behavioral methods with weight reduction in chronic pain management can help patients pinpoint triggers that enable unhealthy habits. When you’re constantly mindful of how your weight can impact your pain-related disabilities, you may be more motivated to prevent further weight gain and seek proper help. Establishing motivations for weight loss, such as better health and improved quality of life, can help you stick to healthy lifestyle habits for more sustainable results.
Managing chronic pain through weight loss isn't impossible. By following enjoyable exercises, diets, behavioral practices, and other pain relief interventions suited to the individual, weight maintenance and chronic pain are easier to handle.
Kyra Clancy is a freelance writer who specializes in lifestyle and health. She focuses on giving tips for people to improve their nutrition and exercise habits to improve their overall wellness.
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Health and Life Transformation Coach
1yFor starters, that added extra weight places added extra pressure on joints. And this: Obese patients are known to exhibit higher levels of the inflammatory markers interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and C-reactive protein (CRP).4,5 Adipocytes, as well as providing an energy store for the body, also have an endocrine function, secreting adipocytokines such as IL-6, TNF-α and leptin. CRP is released from the liver in response to IL-6 among other inflammatory cytokines, normally acting to assist the immune system by activating the complement cascade and opsonising pathogens. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590160/
Natural Health Consultant at Lifevantage Corporation
1yWhile I agree there is a connection between obesity and chronic health problems, IMHO, the BMI can be misleading. In my younger years, I had a muscular build which caused my BMI to appear higher than normal for someone my height. The BMI reading would indicate I was overweight, even though I had little body fat.