How Losing Weight Can Help Your Arthritis
Dropping just a few pounds can reduce the pressure on joints and get you on your way to a healthier, new you.
Losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight can be a challenge if you spend the best part of your days at a desk, rely on fast food for work night dinners, or end the day too tired and sore for an exercise class or evening walk. But it’s a challenge worth accepting — for many reasons.
You probably know that being overweight can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. But did you know that weight can also affect your arthritis? The good news is that in some cases even small reductions in weight can have big benefits.
Here are some ways reaching and maintaining a healthy weight can help ease your arthritis.
Reduce pressure on your joints. More weight means more pressure on your weight-bearing joints, which can result in more damage to stressed joints. Losing weight can lessen the pressure. A key study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism of overweight and obese adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA), for example, found that losing one pound of weight resulted in four pounds of pressure being removed from the knees. In other words, losing just 10 pounds would relieve 40 pounds of pressure from your knees.
Ease your pain. Multiple studies show that losing weight results in arthritis pain relief. One, published in Arthritis Care & Research, went further to find that losing more weight — to an extent — results in more pain relief. The study of overweight and obese older adults with pain from knee OA found that greater weight loss resulted in better outcomes than losing a smaller amount of weight. Losing 10% to 20% of starting bodyweight improved pain, function and quality of life better than losing just 5% of bodyweight.
Reduce your inflammation. Fat itself is an active tissue that creates and releases pro-inflammatory chemicals. By reducing fat stores in the body, your body’s overall inflammation will go down. Research has shown that obesity can activate and sustain body-wide, low-grade inflammation. This inflammation can amplify and aggravate autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), lupus and their associated comorbidities (like heart disease).
Reduce your disease activity. Losing weight can reduce the overall severity of your arthritis. A 2018 study published in International Journal of Clinical Rheumatology reviewed the records of 171 RA patients and found that overweight or obese people who lost at least 5 kg (10.2 pounds) were three times as likely to have improved disease activity compared to those who did not lose weight. A smaller 2019 study published in Arthritis Research & Therapy found that short-term weight loss in obese people with PsA yielded “significant positive effects” on disease activity in joints, enthuses (the areas where tendons or ligaments attach to the bones), and skin.
Improve your chance of remission. Several studies have shown that being obese reduces your chance of achieving minimal disease activity or remission if you have RA or PsA. One review article published in Arthritis Care & Research analyzed data from more than 3,000 people with RA and found that obese patients had lower odds of achieving and sustaining remission compared with non-obese people. A separate 2018 article in Joint Bone Spine analyzed several studies totaling more than 3,800 patient records. The authors found that obesity “hampered the effects of anti-TNF agents” and showed that the odds of reaching a good response or achieving remission were lower in obese than non-obese patients taking anti-TNF biologics.
Make physical activity easier. While being active can help you lose weight, losing weight can also make it easier to be active and reap all of the benefits that physical activity has to offer, including reduced pain and stiffness, increased mobility and physical function, and improvements in mental health, quality of life, and comorbid conditions.
Lower your uric acid levels and risk of gout attack. An analysis of 10 studies, published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, found that weight loss was beneficial for obese or overweight people with gout. Overall, people who lost weight had lower serum uric acid levels and fewer gout attacks.
Slow cartilage degeneration in OA. Several studies have shown an association between weight loss and reduced joint damage, including a 2022 study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism in which researchers evaluated data of 6,074 osteoarthritic knees (in 3,988 people) for OA progression. They found that each one-unit decrease in body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight, was associated with a 4.76% reduction “in the odds of the incidence and progression of the overall structural defects of knee osteoarthritis” from baseline to four to five years at follow-up.
Weight loss is a tough endeavor, but if you are overweight, no single action can provide as many positive effects on the body. If you are overweight, talk to your health care provider about starting a weight loss program.
You probably know that being overweight can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. But did you know that weight can also affect your arthritis? The good news is that in some cases even small reductions in weight can have big benefits.
Here are some ways reaching and maintaining a healthy weight can help ease your arthritis.
Reduce pressure on your joints. More weight means more pressure on your weight-bearing joints, which can result in more damage to stressed joints. Losing weight can lessen the pressure. A key study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism of overweight and obese adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA), for example, found that losing one pound of weight resulted in four pounds of pressure being removed from the knees. In other words, losing just 10 pounds would relieve 40 pounds of pressure from your knees.
Ease your pain. Multiple studies show that losing weight results in arthritis pain relief. One, published in Arthritis Care & Research, went further to find that losing more weight — to an extent — results in more pain relief. The study of overweight and obese older adults with pain from knee OA found that greater weight loss resulted in better outcomes than losing a smaller amount of weight. Losing 10% to 20% of starting bodyweight improved pain, function and quality of life better than losing just 5% of bodyweight.
Reduce your inflammation. Fat itself is an active tissue that creates and releases pro-inflammatory chemicals. By reducing fat stores in the body, your body’s overall inflammation will go down. Research has shown that obesity can activate and sustain body-wide, low-grade inflammation. This inflammation can amplify and aggravate autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), lupus and their associated comorbidities (like heart disease).
Reduce your disease activity. Losing weight can reduce the overall severity of your arthritis. A 2018 study published in International Journal of Clinical Rheumatology reviewed the records of 171 RA patients and found that overweight or obese people who lost at least 5 kg (10.2 pounds) were three times as likely to have improved disease activity compared to those who did not lose weight. A smaller 2019 study published in Arthritis Research & Therapy found that short-term weight loss in obese people with PsA yielded “significant positive effects” on disease activity in joints, enthuses (the areas where tendons or ligaments attach to the bones), and skin.
Improve your chance of remission. Several studies have shown that being obese reduces your chance of achieving minimal disease activity or remission if you have RA or PsA. One review article published in Arthritis Care & Research analyzed data from more than 3,000 people with RA and found that obese patients had lower odds of achieving and sustaining remission compared with non-obese people. A separate 2018 article in Joint Bone Spine analyzed several studies totaling more than 3,800 patient records. The authors found that obesity “hampered the effects of anti-TNF agents” and showed that the odds of reaching a good response or achieving remission were lower in obese than non-obese patients taking anti-TNF biologics.
Make physical activity easier. While being active can help you lose weight, losing weight can also make it easier to be active and reap all of the benefits that physical activity has to offer, including reduced pain and stiffness, increased mobility and physical function, and improvements in mental health, quality of life, and comorbid conditions.
Lower your uric acid levels and risk of gout attack. An analysis of 10 studies, published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, found that weight loss was beneficial for obese or overweight people with gout. Overall, people who lost weight had lower serum uric acid levels and fewer gout attacks.
Slow cartilage degeneration in OA. Several studies have shown an association between weight loss and reduced joint damage, including a 2022 study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism in which researchers evaluated data of 6,074 osteoarthritic knees (in 3,988 people) for OA progression. They found that each one-unit decrease in body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight, was associated with a 4.76% reduction “in the odds of the incidence and progression of the overall structural defects of knee osteoarthritis” from baseline to four to five years at follow-up.
Weight loss is a tough endeavor, but if you are overweight, no single action can provide as many positive effects on the body. If you are overweight, talk to your health care provider about starting a weight loss program.
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