How Your Weight Can Play a Role in Your Joint Pain

Your body works best under optimal conditions, such as when your posture is balanced and when your bones are in proper alignment. But have you considered how body weight impacts your joints?

When you carry a few extra pounds, you may be straining joints more than you suspect. 

The joint pain relief specialists at Herald Square Chiropractic and Sport in Midtown, New York City, understand the relationship between body mass and joint pain, and we encourage weight loss when those extra pounds contribute to your symptoms. 

This month, we’ll show how even a few pounds of excess weight makes a big difference in how your body moves and performs. The impact may surprise you. 

Movement and weight: force multipliers

As your body moves, it uses weight-bearing joints like the hips and knees to alternate support for your body. For example, with each step, one knee absorbs a force of 1.5 times your body weight while the other leg is raised from the ground. 

If your weight is 160 lbs., that means every step places 240 lbs. of force on one knee. If you’re just 10 lbs. overweight, you add 15 additional pounds of force. 

That’s walking on level ground. If you’re walking up stairs, the force factor may be 2 or 3 times your body weight. When you bend to pick up something from the floor, the force may be as much as 5 times your body weight on the knees. 

Similar effects occur with any joint that adjusts to carry additional loads as you move and perform tasks. To put it simply, each pound of weight makes your body work significantly harder. 

The effects of wear-and-tear

When you consider that osteoarthritis is the most common source of joint pain and that a primary cause of osteoarthritis is everyday wear-and-tear on your joints, then the impact of excess body weight becomes more obvious. 

However, there’s good news when you consider weight loss. The same force multiplier effect at work when you’re overweight also applies in reverse as you lose pounds. Even modest amounts of weight loss create significant relief for your overworked joints. 

Since osteoarthritis results from cumulative damage over time, the sooner you lose even a few pounds, the faster you’ll ease the burden on painful joints. 

Visit Herald Square Chiropractic and Sport for treatments that help create pain-free movement, an important part of any weight management plan. Call or click to book your appointment today.