Do Joints Really Hurt In The Weather? Scientists Tried To Figure It Out

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 23:16

Do joints really hurt in the weather? Scientists tried to figure it out

Thousands of studies do not provide a definite answer. Science only knows for certain whether the direction of the wind influences pain.

Photo: Esther Max

Many people complain that joint pain gets worse in bad weather. Some arthritis patients claim that they can predict weather changes in intensity. But this information is usually scattered, individual small studies and case reports cannot firmly prove that such pain is related to the weather.

Scientists at the University of Manchester conducted a meta-analysis to clarify the credibility of claims about the sensitivity of joints to weather. They brought together and analyzed data from about 4 thousand publications. The results were published in the journal Pain.

It turned out that 63% of studies indicate a correlation between weather and chronic pain. At first glance, this looks convincing, but the specific research data differed significantly, were "point". For example, some of them found a link between only one aspect of the weather (say, temperature) and only one type of pain (for example, with osteoarthritis).

The most reliable finding from the meta-analysis is that the direction of the wind does not affect pain in any way - it neither weakens nor intensifies it. The rest of the data turned out to be of insufficient quality to draw conclusions.

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In the findings of the study, the scientists stated that it is not yet possible to find an exact answer to the oldest question about the effect of weather on pain. The authors write that only large-scale qualitative research will help to solve this riddle.