Published:
February 16, 2022
If you’re overweight or obese and having trouble with your knees, hips or other joints due to osteoarthritis, you are likely looking for ways to reduce your pain and increase your mobility. Ongoing research indicates that weight-loss or bariatric surgery can lessen your pain and improve your quality of life.
Why Obesity Hurts Your Joints
Because every pound of body weight puts four pounds of pressure on your knees and six pounds on your hips, even 10 extra pounds can put a load on your joints. And if you have arthritis, carrying excess pounds causes your condition to worsen. Fatty tissues release inflammatory proteins into the blood that may destroy cartilage.
Studies continue to look at people with joint pain who successfully lost weight after undergoing bariatric surgery.
A study out of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that one to three years after surgery, the majority of patients say their pain, as well as their walking ability, improved significantly. Reducing pain and having greater mobility translates into the ability to live a healthier, physically active lifestyle.
Knee and Hip Replacement: The Data Tells the Story
Two out of three obese adults suffer from knee osteoarthritis at some time in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obese people with osteoarthritis are three to four times more likely to need knee and hip replacements compared to people of normal weight.
In classes for patients preparing for hip or knee replacement surgery at the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Orthopaedic Center, educators talk about the importance of weight loss in helping ensure the best outcomes from surgery.
The less stress someone puts on new implants, the longer they will last. Some orthopaedic surgeons advise losing weight prior to surgery if a patient’s BMI is >40, and will hold off doing surgery until a more optimal weight is achieved.
Weight and Joints: The Bottom Line
Some experts call obesity the number one preventable risk factor for knee and hip arthritis…not to mention a major contributor to other health issues.
If you are obese and are experiencing knee or hip pain, bariatric surgery may offer pain reduction and improved mobility that is often comparable to knee or hip replacement. And if you do need to have joint replacement surgery, bariatric surgery is often a prudent first step.
Losing weight has lots of proven benefits—for your heart, your blood pressure, and diabetes prevention, to name a few. Now, add your knees and hips to the list.