Arthritis And Obesity: Obesity Comes First
Being overweight puts extra strain on the joints of the legs like the hips, knees, ankles, etc. This pressure wears away at the cartilage between the bones, as well as at the bones themselves. Although hip pain and damage can be a problem, the most common complaint among obese arthritis sufferers is pain in the knees.
Studies suggest that if the obesity is a problem before the arthritis, losing even a small amount of weight can help reduce symptoms.
Even though a joint replacement operation can really help arthritis sufferers, most surgeons prefer to avoid operating on patients who are obese since they always run a higher risk of surgery complications.
Arthritis and Obesity: Arthritis is the precursor
If you are used to eating fairly large quantities of food and then exercising vigorously to work off the calories (units of energy utilized by your body), weight gain may become a problem if the joints in your hips and knees become so sore and stiff you can no longer follow your daily exercise routine.
If you start to see some indicators of arthritis, it's time to go see your doctor. There are drugs which can help you deal with arthritis effects, and your doctor may prescribe those in addition to injections, physical therapy, or even joint replacement.
Should you have to cut back on your physical activity due to the effects of your arthritis, don't neglect altering your diet as well. It's probably going to be necessary to reduce the calories you eat daily, since you might not get as many opportunities to burn them off. Monitor your weight by getting on the scale every other day or so, just to make sure you're not gaining.
Obesity and Arthritis: the things that can cause both
Arthritis and obesity are highly correlated. This means that a person who has one condition is likely to have the other as well. However, there is a big difference between ?correlation? and ?causation.? For instance, there is a correlation between having a high number of churches in a community and a having high amount of crime. But the churches don?t cause the crime to occur. Rather, the ?cause? of both the number of churches and the high crime rate is having a large, urban population.
This has, of course, led those in the scientific community to question whether there may be a third piece in the obesity/arthritis puzzle which might be the cause of both conditions. For instance, age is a factor that increases the risk for both conditions. Sadly, however, at this time researchers have yet to find the thing which might cause both obesity and arthritis.
The smartest way to try to prevent both obesity and arthritis is to eat moderately, get in plenty of physical activity,and make sure to see your doctor right away if you develop pain that makes you unable to exercise.
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