Bariatric surgery is an important solution for morbidly obese people diagnosed with osteoarthritis, especially if the condition is still in its earliest stages. A study by surgeons at the University of Alberta determined that bariatric surgery does produce moderate improvement in knee and hip osteoarthritis pain following bariatric surgery, and earlier studies showed a drop in pain from 100% to 37% in some bariatric surgery patients!The Canadian study explains that previous research points to improved outcomes when the patient receives bariatric surgery before the osteoarthritis gets too advanced, Bariatric surgery shows a more modest improvement in patients whose cartilage has already been worn away.A Johns Hopkins study found that weight loss offers improvement for osteoarthritis. For a woman of normal height, for every 11-pound weight loss, the risk of knee osteoarthritis dropped more than 50 percent. Similarly, for men in the overweight category who lost enough weight to move into the normal weight category, knee osteoarthritis decreased by 21.5 percent.But losing weight can be tough when even simple movements cause pain! Bariatric surgery helps a morbidly obese patient lose the weight that allows then to decrease pain levels and pursue a healthier, more active lifestyle. Osteoarthritis is the breakdown of the protective cartilage at the end of bones, leading to painful problems like swelling, inflammation, loss of mobility and bone spurs.The elderly and the obese are particularly susceptible to osteoarthritis, but it is a very common condition. The Arthritis Foundation notes that one in two people develop osteoarthritis in their knees, one in four have osteoarthritis in a hip and one in 12 have osteoarthritis in a hand.As osteoarthritis symptoms progress, an individual may give up physical activities in an attempt to avoid the pain — and this can exacerbate a condition like morbid obesity.