More Overweight Means More Are in Pain

May 12, 2005 — -- Dial Lewis used to weigh a trim 130. But once a "snake-like" pain started creeping along her hip and back area 15 years ago, she started taking medications to treat the problem. The medicines and the pain, she says, led to a weight gain of nearly 100 pounds.

The added weight then added more pain and it became a vicious cycle.

"I went from 135 to 140 to 160 to 220 -- before I knew it because steroids in the medications cause weight gain," the La Porte, Texas, resident said. "So you've got back pain and now you're carrying an extra 30 pounds.

"It's just a revolving door."

The number of overweight and obese Americans has risen at an alarming rate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight -- up from 23 percent in 1964. Studies have long linked weight gain to a slew of health problems from diabetes to coronary heart disease to gastric reflux and stroke, among others. In recent years, doctors specializing in chronic pain have also noted a growing number of overweight patients showing up in their offices, complaining of conditions like chronic back, hip, neck, leg and foot pain, even persistent, severe headaches.

John Foreyt, director of nutrition research at Baylor College of Medicine, for example, said that 20 years ago he rarely saw 300-pound patients. Today, he says they are common. Whether one condition leads to another, as in Lewis' case, doctors say the challenge lies in making sure the patient's weight is addressed when considering treatment for their pain.

"I think for many doctors there is a hesitancy to weigh their patients and talk about weight because of the social stigma associated with the obese," said Dawn Marcus, a chronic pain specialist in Pittsburgh. "But if doctors decline to evaluate their patients' weight, they miss a good opportunity to improve their health and get rid of their pain."