It is common for peoplewith chronic joint pain to feel more pain and stiffness when the weather turnsdamp or cold. While it might be tempting to be skeptical when an elderlyrelative says his or her joints are predicting that it will rain tomorrow, itturns out they may be right. Essentially, our joints sometimes act as humanbarometers.
Researchers believe its not actually the cold, snow or rainthat causes an increase in joint pain, but rather a change in barometricpressure. Robert Jamison, PhD, a professor at Harvard Medical School and chiefpsychologist at the Pain Management Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital inBoston, and several colleagues performed experiments with chronic painsufferers to investigate this phenomenon. The resulting study reported that 67.9percent of the people surveyed responded that they were sure changes in theweather had an effect on their pain. Most of the patients reported that theycan feel a change in their pain before rain or cold weather occur.
Jamison likens the joints to a balloon. When a balloon isinflated, it has the maximum inside and outside pressure. High barometricpressure that pushes against the body from the outside keeps tissues fromexpanding. But when the weather changes, the barometer drops, reducingatmospheric pressure and allowing tissues to swell. This can put increasedpressure on the nerves that send pain signals. It doesn't take much expansionor contraction of tissue to affect a pain trigger, Jamison adds.
Moving to a warmer climate unfortunately will not help theproblem in most cases. Jamison says Theres no heaven on earth. If you haveawful back or neck pain ... there's a good chance that that pain will travelwith you. According to Jamisons research, there is no area of the countrywhere people experience less pain. The patients with chronic pain who lived inSan Diego reported just as much pain as their counterparts in Boston. Jamisonsays, I think as mammals, we kind of adjust to our climate.
So what can be done to manage joint pain that comes and goeswith the weather? Experts suggest a few possible strategies you can take:
Keep moving Much as you may long to staycurled up under the duvet in bad weather, moving around will help keep yourjoints from stiffening. Try doing some gentle yoga and stretching exercises.
You may not be able to avoid weather-related pain entirely,but rest assured that an eventual improvement in the weather will likely bring somepain relief as well.