Lose Belly Fat to Reduce Body Aches

Summary: One of the most extensive new studies confirms that those with central obesity or greater belly fat are much more likely to develop widespread, multisite, chronic musculoskeletal pain. Greater belly fat may almost double the risk of such chronic pains in women.

 A first-of-its-kind study demonstrates a strong association between belly fat and chronic pain. This means that reducing belly fat may also help reduce chronic pains.

This is not the first study to suggest that chronic pain may have to do something with metabolic disorders. However, it is one of the first studies to provide strong evidence that belly fat accumulation significantly increases the risk of chronic pain.

In recent years, complaints of chronic pain and fatigue have been on the rise. Science has known that they have to do something with metabolic inflammation. However, this new study provides sound evidence based on certain objective tests.

Researchers know that many cases of chronic pain are due to certain systemic issues. This is because most patients have very vague complaints, and lab tests often fail to show significant health issues or changes in specific organs.

Schedule An Appointment With Us

This is particularly seen with women. Many of them keep coming to doctors’ offices, complaining about widespread body aches. In many instances, these body aches keep changing locations. Additionally, such body aches coincide with fatigue, mood changes, and more.

For this study, researchers analyzed the data from the UK Biobank Study with 32,409 participants. For these individuals, data regarding chronic musculoskeletal pain was available. Almost half of the study participants were women. Researchers further identified 638 patients for follow-up MRI (to measure abdominal fat) and pain assessment with a follow-up period of about 2 years.

Researchers noted a strong association between generalized body aches, widespread musculoskeletal pains, and abdominal fat accumulation. They found visceral fat accumulation almost doubled women’s risk of widespread body aches. They also found that subcutaneous fat accumulation also increased the risk of chronic pains by 60%.

Additionally, they noted that such an association was also present in men, but it was much weaker. Thus, if visceral or abdominal fat doubled the risk of chronic body aches in women, it only increased the risk of widespread pains in men by 34%. In contrast, subcutaneous fat accumulation in men increased the risk of such pains by 39%.

This study provides some sound evidence and sheds new light on the complex nature of chronic or persistent pains. It shows that such widespread chronic musculoskeletal pains have much to do with metabolic disorders and obesity. It also shows that females are more sensitive to chronic pains.

Not only that, but this study also found that the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) to subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) ratio was an excellent predictor of chronic pain in multiple sites in both sexes. This ratio simply shows the accumulation of abdominal fat in relation to subcutaneous fat tissues. Previous studies have shown that the VAT to SAT ratio can also help predict the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

However, this study did not explore the cause of such widespread pain. Nonetheless, doctors think that there could be multiple reasons for an increased pain risk. This could be due to higher systemic inflammation and graver metabolic changes that occur due to higher accumulation of abdominal fat.

These are not assumptions, as many studies have shown that abdominal fat differs from subcutaneous fat. Many studies have shown that higher visceral fat accumulation is associated with increased levels of inflammatory markers like various cytokines and adipokines (like leptin and visfatin).

Individuals experiencing such pains may benefit by lowering systemic inflammation. There could be multiple ways to achieve this. They can use dietary measures like increased intake of antioxidants, boosting intake of foods that lower inflammation, and also using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

And, of course, most would benefit by managing the root cause of the condition, which is central obesity or greater accumulation of abdominal fat. So, lose belly fat to reduce widespread body aches.

Source:

Kifle, Z. D., Tian, J., Aitken, D., Melton, P. E., Cicuttini, F., Jones, G., & Pan, F. (2024). MRI-derived abdominal adipose tissue is associated with multisite and widespread chronic pain. Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2024-105535