Flashback to a few of years ago and I was busy in my day job as a veterinarian telling (most) people that their dogs were overweight. Now that can be a tough gig when the dogs’ owners are often themselves overweight! But at the end of the day, my working motto as a vet was to approach each decision from a place of compassion and to do the absolute best thing for the dog… even if that meant I might offend the owner at the same time. And so after practicing that approach for so long, even though I have moved on from the veterinary profession and now work to improve human health, I can’t help but find myself sounding a little bit blunt when it comes to discussing weight. This may come across as insulting… but honestly, from a place of compassion, I am just telling it like it is. Please have a look at this cute puppy (naw) and then read on…
I was chatting to a physiotherapist about the statistics of arthritis in overweight dogs and rattling off one of my favourite ‘listen up’ stories about the impacts a few extra kilos can have on a dog’s life. The ‘story’ is actually of a 14-year long study that was conducted on 48 labradors by feeding them in 2 groups – a control group being fed as much as they want, and a test group being fed a limited amount to keep the dogs lean. The results were shocking. By age of 10, only three lean-fed dogs had died, compared to seven of the control dogs. At the end of the 12th year, 11 lean-fed dogs were still alive, with only one control dog surviving. The control dogs on average needed treatment for chronic conditions such as arthritis a whole 2 years younger than the lean fed dogs! The lean dogs also had lower serum triglycerides and better insulin and glucose use. In short, the lean dogs lived longer, better quality lives.
So it wasn’t a huge surprise when the physiotherapist replied that in humans, studies on the knee joint have shown that being 1 kg overweight is the equivalent to carrying 4kg of extra pressure on that joint. So being 10kg overweight is like carrying an extra 40kg on the knees! and 30kg overweight… 120kg worth of extra pressure and pain in those knee joints. Multiply that by the amount of steps taken in an average day… month… year… ouch!
Whilst surgery, physiotherapy, exercise, yoga, fish oils, emu oil, herbal supplements, positive thinking, magic wands and all sorts of other things can be applied to help out sore joints, (all with varying degrees of effectiveness!) – it is so fundamentally important to be a healthy weight. And yes it is much easier to buy some tablets than it is to change your eating habits, but the evidence speaks for itself. The issue however – weight – is just not spoken about for fear of insult… I think we should be talking about it!
So out of compassion for the people you love, I hope that this post may inspire you to tell somebody about the correlation between weight and joint pain. Out of compassion, it is time we started talking about weight like it is – hard on the joints. Being a healthy weight isn’t just about looking good! Its about less pain, more function and more LIFE!
Kelly Moriarty