I do not think there is anyone that has never experienced some type of pain at various times of their lives. Unfortunately, aging seems to increase the frequency and intensity of the various types of pains. Experiencing pain really sucks as when pain is moderate-severe, we start losing the capacity to enjoy so many things in our lives as we deal with the pain.
There are 4 major types of pain:
- Nociceptive pain: This is pain due to injury. Example: Falling down and injuring your back.
- Inflammatory pain: This is pain that occurs when an inflammatory reaction occurs in the body. Example: Rheumatoid arthritis pain
- Neuropathic pain: This is pain that occurs when nerve inflammation occurs. Example: Pain that occurs for weeks/months after a shingles outbreak
- Functional pain: This is pain that occurs without a specific origin. Example: Abdominal pain from irritable bowel syndrome.
I will add yet a 5th type of pain: Emotional pain. Example: Grieving from loss of a loved one.
How does weight control impact pain? The answer is “LOTS”. Looking at the various forms of pain, overweight/obese people are more prone to injuries of the weight bearing joints, have more inflammatory syndromes, have greater chances of developing diabetes that can, in turn, lead to neuropathic pains and suffer from more functional pain syndromes.
Depression, self-esteem and confidence issues contribute to a higher chance of emotional pain as well.
There are many reasons to control weight and having much less pain is one of the very important reasons.
