Rainfall and joint pain – fact or fiction?

Rainy weather has long been blamed for achy joints. Unjustly so, according to new research from the Harvard Medical School.

The analysis, published in BMJ, found no relationship between rainfall and joint or back pain.

The notion that certain symptoms and weather go hand in hand has persisted since antiquity.

Hippocrates, writing in On Airs, Waters, and Places, exhorted those who wish to understand medicine to look at the changing seasons of the year and study the prevailing winds to see how the weather they bring affects health.

The belief has endured over the centuries and well into the present, likely fuelled by a combination of folklore and small studies that have repeatedly yielded mixed results.

The newly published analysis led by Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy, used a "big data" approach, linking insurance claims from millions of doctor's visits with daily rainfall totals from thousands of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather stations.

"No matter how we looked at the data, we didn't see any correlation between rainfall and physician visits for joint pain or back pain," said Associate Professor Jena.

Do you think there is a link between joint pain or inflammation and impending bad weather? Are you able to feel a storm coming ‘in your bones’?

8 comments

A DEFINITE FACT!!!!!!!!

People do not go to the Dr every time they have an ache or pain especially when they know what the problem is and have had it for many years -- so thatswhy they did not see --what they said below>>

"we didn't see any correlation between rainfall and physician visits for joint pain or back pain," said Associate Professor Jena."

Maybe when Associate Professor Jena gets a bit older she might find it is FACT

Just shows how money is wasted in so-called research by fake researchers using such dumb criteria to reach their conclusions.

I do believe there is a "correlation"..when it rains..the weather is damp and damp affects the joints especially if one suffers from arthritis...

Sometimes I think researchers should pay more attention to old remedies..


My Mother used to be able to tell 2 to 3 days b4 bad weather and now I can do the same

i never thought the dy would come when i agreed with somethink THEA said,    but i suffer badly with arthritis,    and it is DEFINATLY worse when it has  been raining then warms up..   the dampness in the air gives my old bones hell,   i have told my oc this,  and he agrees,   so some docs do believe it,    

How can they assume to measure this on the number of "physician visits"?

Of course it causes pain, did they think of measuring the humidity, temperature and air pressure which usually changes when rain is around. It doesn't take much imagination to see that the amount of fluid carried by the body would vary under these conditions. 

Did their test subjects say, "no my joints are ok, but the rest of my body hurts like crazy? or "I didn't go to the physician because I already know what causes it?

This is about as scientific as that song "Achy breaky heart"

Yes Charlie and I bet they got a heap of money for doing this   "study"

 

Hot, humid weather brings with it a marked increase in the amount of fluid retention in my legs and feet.  This impacts on my weight and on my joints, particularly my knees - this, despite oedema-relieving medication.  So my knees in particular, and lower back feel more pain with more difficulty of movement and swelling discomfort.  When the medication can clear the oedema (in the cooler months), I don't experience that swollen discomfort nearly as much.  I don't hold "rainy" weather to account; rather, steamy humidity.  My oedema-retention strengthens directly in relation to muggy weather - therefore also my level of pain.

Rubbish! A day or so before it was going to rain, my mother's big toes would ache, and our cat would lie with it's chin pointed up to the ceiling.  Those two indicators were a much better indicator of Approaching rain than any of the weather forecasts!

Then Harvard University just got it wrong. 

Its the low barometric pressure that exacerbates the pain. I have a barometer in the house and if the joints ache I check and sure enough - its low.

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