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Can weight loss relieve back and joint pain?
Medically reviewed by
Alexandra Cristina Cowell, Writer & Clinical Content Reviewer
You may be prescribed painkillers to help reduce pain caused by back or joint issues. While these should help ease your symptoms, they won’t help to improve any underlying issues that could be responsible. If you’re living with overweight or obesity and dealing with joint or back pain, the two could be related. Losing just a few pounds could help relieve some of the pressure on your joints and back, and help to reduce pain in the long term. And this is where weight loss treatment may able to help.
What is the link between weight and back and joint pain?
There are a few different reasons we think weight and back or joint pain are connected. Studies have shown that living with overweight or obesity can be linked to lower back pain and degenerative disc conditions , as well as higher rates of osteoarthritis affecting joints in the knee and hands. This could be because of additional strain on your joints and back (as they have to support more weight) , or because of changes in posture caused by carrying fat around the midsection.
Or, it could be linked to inflammation. You might think of inflammation as a symptom of joint or back pain rather than the cause – but obesity can increase several inflammatory markers throughout your body, and result in chronic low-grade inflammation. Research shows that chronic low-grade inflammation has a key role in the development of osteoarthritis, which means prolonged low-grade inflammation from overweight or obesity could increase your risk of developing joint pain.
How can weight loss help joint and back pain?
When it comes to joint pain, the scientific evidence for weight loss is really positive. One study found that, for women of average height, every 11 lbs of weight lost reduced the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis by more than half. The study also found that if men with obesity lost enough weight to move to overweight, and men in the overweight category lost enough weight that they were no longer living with overweight, the risk of knee osteoarthritis would decrease by around 21.5%.
There’s less evidence that losing weight will help with back pain when compared with joint pain, however. It’s thought that losing weight with diet and exercise could take pressure off your vertebrae, strengthen your core and back muscles to help support your spine, and improve your mobility to help with your quality of life. But the available evidence is currently very limited.
A review of relevant research identified eleven studies looking into the relationship between weight loss and back pain, only one of which was a randomized controlled trial. In this trial, 160 people were randomly assigned to either a 6-month telephone-based healthy lifestyle coaching service or a waiting list for 26 weeks. The study found that this lifestyle intervention did not help improve pain or quality of life in people with lower back pain and overweight or obesity. More high quality studies are needed to determine whether or not weight loss could improve pain and quality of life in people living with chronic back pain.
How can joint and back pain impact your overall health?
Joint and back pain can have an impact on every part of your life, from your overall health, to your work and social life, and your sleep. A case controlled study explored the impact of lower back pain on sleep quality and quality of life using the Dallas Pain Questionnaire. Individuals were split into two groups: 101 people with chronic lower back pain, and 97 control subjects. The study found that, when compared with a healthy control group, those in the group with chronic lower back pain had significantly altered sleep in proportion to the severity of their pain. This study did not identify whether back pain was the cause of sleep disturbances, or if sleep disturbances caused back pain – but it identified a clear link between the two.
There’s also some evidence to suggest a link between joint pain and sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea is a disorder that causes your breathing to slow down or stop while you’re sleeping. This can disrupt your sleep and lead to serious health conditions like high blood pressure and heart disease. A study comparing the number of cases of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) between two groups, one with rheumatoid arthritis and one without, found that the incidence rate of OSA was 75% higher in the arthritis group. Another major contributing factor to OSA is obesity. So if you’re struggling to sleep because of joint pain and are living with overweight or obesity, losing a little weight could hit two birds with one stone.
Difficulty sleeping from joint or back pain (whether directly, or because of a related condition) can also affect your mental health. Lack of sleep has been linked with depression, and trouble with controlling emotions.
What is the link between physical pain and a decline in mental health?
It’s really common for people who are living with joint or back pain to struggle with their mental health. Research shows that people living with back or neck pain are more likely to be living with mental health disorders like depression or anxiety than those without.
Living with daily pain is stressful, and it can have a huge impact on your ability to go about your day-to-day life. It can affect your social life, work, sleep – and even the levels of chemicals in your brain and nervous system. These chemicals include cortisol, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which can all affect how you feel, think, and how you behave. Altering the levels of these chemicals in your body can contribute to mental health difficulties like depression.
And living with mental health disorders can make pain worse, too. It can lower your pain threshold, and make it more difficult for you to deal with pain. Studies show that the highest pain levels reported by people with arthritis are most likely to come from people living with anxiety or depression.
Losing weight with weight loss treatment could help target the mental factors contributing to back and joint pain, as well as the physical. By taking pressure and strain off your joints and back to relieve pain, losing weight can help improve your overall quality of life – which may help with your mental health. This is especially true if your weight contributes to any mental health difficulties you may experience. And by helping with your mental health, losing weight could reduce joint and back pain even more – and help you deal with any pain more effectively.
Can joint and back pain be a financial burden?
If you’re living with joint or back pain, you might find yourself having to miss work because of your symptoms – or pay for physical therapy to help relieve them. Having to miss work and the additional expense of physical therapy can cause a financial burden – and this could affect your mental health, too.
If you find yourself missing work because of back or joint pain, or you’re regularly paying for physical therapy – there’s a chance losing weight could help you save a little money. Losing a little weight could help improve your pain and quality of life to the point where you don’t have to miss work as often, or see a physical therapist as regularly. This could help relieve the financial burden of back and joint pain, even after the cost of weight loss treatment if you decide to go down this route.
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