If you live with chronic pain, you may need to start by losing belly fat.
A new study suggests that excess fat around the waist is linked to chronic pain throughout the body. Women are particularly at risk, with the risk of chronic pain increasing by up to 60 percent when they have a lot of subcutaneous or visceral fat. Men are less likely to have the same association.
Researchers from the University of Western Australia, the University of Tasmania, and Monash University in Australia jointly analyzed data from 32,409 people (mean age 55, 51% female) extracted from the UK Biobank, which has accumulated medical data on more than 500,000 people, and conducted questionnaires and health assessments.
The subjects’ visceral fat around their liver and organs was measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The amount of subcutaneous fat under the skin was also examined. In addition, a questionnaire was used to determine whether they had experienced pain in various parts of their body, such as the neck, shoulders, back, hips, and knees, for more than three months. The same evaluation was conducted on 638 people two years later. The results showed that people with more abdominal fat were more likely to experience pain. Those who were overweight, with a high body mass index (BMI), were also at a higher risk of experiencing pain.
Women in particular were more affected. Women with a higher proportion of fat around their organs and just under their skin were 60 percent more likely to experience chronic pain than those with less fat.
However, in men, having a bulging belly only increased the risk of chronic pain by 13%.
In a paper published in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, the researchers said, “Higher levels of adipose tissue were associated with a higher likelihood of reporting chronic pain in both men and women,” and “the effect estimate was relatively larger in women than in men.”
The gender differences could be due to “differences in fat distribution and hormones,” the researchers explained. Reducing body fat around the waist “could be considered a goal for chronic pain management, especially for those with pain in multiple areas or with widespread pain,” the researchers said.
It is widely known that obesity is associated with inflammation in body tissues. Inflammation can affect the nervous system and affect how people experience pain, the authors noted.
Reporter Park Hae-sik, Donga.com [email protected]
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2024-09-12 09:17:12