“Can osteoarthritis be caused by being overweight?”
My mother is overweight and has recently been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Will losing weight help in treating her condition?
5 Answers
The answer depends on where she has joint pain. Knees are a very common site for osteoarthritis for overweight patients. Losing even a few pounds should help to reduce knee pain. If the pain is in other joints, weight loss may be less important.
Obesity affects arthritis for two reasons: First, the excess load on your joints can cause pain and discomfort and second, a number of inflammatory mediators produced in fat affect joint tissues and play a role in pain, just as being overweight is linked to increased arthritis pain, weight loss may help improve arthritis symptoms. Check out this article for more information: https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/reasons-lose-weight-with-arthritis/