Maintaining a healthy weight is an important part of your overall health and wellbeing. Eating a balanced diet and incorporating exercise into your daily life is the best way to maintain your weight, but if you’re living with chronic pain, then it can be much harder to control your weight. Chronic pain & obesity are often interlinked. Not only does chronic pain make it less easy to follow a healthy lifestyle, but if you’re using medical marijuana to control your pain, you could also experience the munchies, which can interfere with your eating habits and make you head of the snack cupboard a little more often.
So how can chronic pain adversely affect your weight?
It Can Limit Your Movement
When you’re in constant pain, then you probably aren’t getting your recommended amount of daily exercise, or even moving about normally for day-to-day tasks. Add to this a less than perfect diet and obesity is a real possibility.
Even if you are managing to get some exercise, it probably isn’t reversing the damage being done by a sedentary lifestyle and a poor diet.
If you’re using certain strains of medical marijuana, then you could also be experiencing cravings that cause you to overeat too.
Chronic Pain Affects Your Mood
Pain takes its toll on the mind as well as the body. Living with pain can cause a dip in energy levels and lead to depression. Often, doctors recommend exercise as a way to help combat low mood, but with chronic pain, you’re unable to use exercise as a mood lifter.
Insomnia
Quality sleep is an important part of your overall health. But when you’re experiencing chronic pain & obesity, you’re probably finding it difficult to get a good night’s rest. When you’re tired, you are more likely to snack and choose unhealthy options such as sugary treats or carbohydrates.
Financial Instability
Chronic pain sufferers can find it difficult to maintain employment or are spending large proportions of their income on treatments and medication. Because healthy food and activities often cost more, then it can be difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Reliance on cheap, processed, and sugary foods can lead to weight gain and all of the health risks associated with it.
Maintaining Weight When Using Medical Marijuana
Getting your pain under control with cannabis can be a game-changer for many people, but you also need to have a plan to get your appetite under control too. As it has been known to stimulate your appetite, you can find your weight starting to rise.
Controlling Your Appetite
To get your health back on track, put some strategies in place to control your appetite, while cannabis works on reducing your pain levels. For example:
- Prepare healthy snacks in advance. Having something to hand straight away can stop you from reaching for the chips or takeout menu. Store these in your fridge in the right portions. Good choices are fruits and vegetables.
- Don’t keep unhealthy food in the house. If you don’t have it, you can’t eat it.
- Keep hydrated. Water is an amazing way to look and feel better. Stay hydrated throughout the day and make sure you drink a lot before taking any cannabis.
- Try different strains. Certain strains are known for stimulating your appetite more than others. Ask a professional’s advice and try a few different strains until you’ve found the one that affects your appetite the least.
Emerald Medical Center
If you’re finding chronic pain & obesity are causing you problems, then you can schedule an appointment with one of our specialists. We have an excellent track record of helping our patients to reduce their chronic pain and associated health issues. You