Chapter 1: Clinical Overview
What are the risks of overweight and obesity?
The signs are often self-evident, and medical diagnosis is based on BMI and waist circumference.
Men have higher rates of overweight and obesity than women, and obesity becomes more common in older age groups.
Carrying extra fat can lead to:
Cardiovascular disease, mainly heart disease and stroke
Type 2 diabetes
Musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis
Some cancers, such as endometrial, breast and colon.
Obstructive sleep apnoea.
These conditions can cause premature death and substantial disability.
The risk of health problems start when someone is only very slightly overweight, and the likelihood of health problems increases as someone becomes more and more overweight.
Many of these conditions cause long-term suffering for individuals and families and the cost to health care systems can be very high.
How does being overweight or obesity cause musculoskeletal pain?
Excess weight puts additional stress on weight-bearing joints (e.g., the knees).
Plus inflammatory factors associated with weight gain might contribute to trouble in other joints (e.g., the hands).
One action to take towards preventing joint pain is to monitor and manage weight.