Does weight affect knee pain?

Knee pain is among the most common complications of being obese. Women who are obese have a four times higher chances of developing OA than women with a healthy weight. On the other hand, men who are obese have five times more chances of developing OA than men with a healthy weight.

If you are among the thousands of people who suffer from chronic knee pain, even a little weight loss can help you in reducing pain and lowering the risk of contracting osteoarthritis.

That extra weight increases the pressure that is exerted on your knees, thereby causing chronic pain and leading to other complications, such as osteoarthritis.

Losing weight can benefit your knee pain in two ways:

• Decreasing weight-bearing pressure on your knees: Each and every pound of weight loss can help decrease the load on your knee joint by four pounds. Less stress means less wear and tear on your knees, which in turn, can lower the risk of OA.
• Reducing inflammation in your body: For a long time, OA was believed as wear and tear disease that is caused by prolonged excess stress on the joints, especially the knees, which, in turn, resulted in inflammation. But, recently, it has been found that inflammation is a key risk factor of OA, rather than being a consequence.

Being obese may raise inflammation in the body and can result in joint pain. Shedding weight can decrease this inflammatory response.

Losing even a few pounds can be beneficial when it comes to dealing with knee pain.