Cause of Painful Joints CONFIRMED!
Joint pain is the unwelcome calling card of a handful of conditions that fall under the rheumatic disease umbrella.
These conditions affect joints, tendons, muscles, ligaments, and bones. And they include rheumatism, osteoarthritis, gout, psoriatic arthritis, and inflammatory spondylitis.
Rheumatic diseases are driven by inflammation. So most treatments aim to reduce excessive inflammation to resolve the joint pain.
But a recent study identified a critical way to SLASH your risk of ever developing one of these painful conditions in the first place.
And if you’re already suffering from one, this SAME solution could dial down your joint pain symptoms.
We already know there’s a connection between rheumatic diseases and body weight. In short, people suffering from these conditions are often overweight.
But we haven’t known whether or not the excess weight was CAUSING the condition to begin with. Or if it was simply a symptom of folks not moving enough because of their joint pain.
To answer this long-standing, chicken-or-the-egg question, researchers took a novel approach. They looked at gene variants linked to a higher body mass index (BMI).
They found that genes linked to a high BMI were associated with a higher risk of rheumatic disease.
In other words, your BMI directly impacts your risk of DEVELOPING a rheumatic disease.
The study didn’t evaluate why being overweight increased the risk.
But one likely reason is that fat cells are highly inflammatory, creating the very problem that DRIVES all of these conditions.
More research is needed to hammer out the details.
But regardless of those results, it’s ALREADY clear that you can reduce your risk… and avoid the joint pain… by maintaining a healthy weight.
P.S. Aching knees? Check out this surprising “More for Less” knee pain solution for some REAL relief.
SOURCE:
“Body Mass Index and the Risk of Rheumatic Disease: Linear and Nonlinear Mendelian Randomization Analyses.” Arthritis & Rheumatology. doi. org/10.1002/art.42613
