It’s winter and for some that means cosy nights in with the fire blazing and lovely walks in fresh winter air. But for others, winter brings on pain due to the weather affecting their arthritis. This made me curious so I decided to do some research on why the weather affects arthritis sufferers. What I discovered was very interesting.
The first note of interest is this: there is NO clinical proof that the weather affects arthritis sufferers. Numerous studies have been done and there was no conclusive evidence that a rainy day will cause pain for all arthritis sufferers. Some feel the affect on a damp day, others don’t but feel the affect just after or before a storm. And the same percentage suffer arthritis in Florida as in Cork!
What was proven is that changes in the weather does cause problems to sufferers but maybe not in the way we thought. Rather than the ‘damp’ getting into your bones, it is a change of atmospheric pressure that causes the pain. Plus, during the colder weather, we tend to do less exercise. Less exercise means less strength in your muscles. Less muscular strength equals more stress and strain on your joints.
I could go on and on and on but the most interesting article I found was http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/reports/arthritis/44-1.html.
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