Why Do My Joints Ache When the Weather Changes?
"There's a storm brewing. I can feel it in my bones." How often have you heard someone say something similar? There are people with arthritis who swear they can predict the weather based solely on how their joints feel. Is this just an old wives' tale, or is there any scientific basis to this belief?
Other People Are Reading
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Theories/Speculation
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Several studies seem to indicate these people aren't just imagining things. In 2003, Japanese scientists conducted one of the first documented studies of the effects of weather changes in the joints of animals; the International Journal of Biometeorology published the results. By artificially inducing foot inflammation, and then placing rats in a low-temperature, low-pressure environment, scientists saw that foot joint pain increased. They believe the sensor that triggers such pain could be in the inner ear, which feels the effects of changes in air pressure. Most people who have flown in airplanes know the feeling from their ears popping when the plane increases or decreases altitude. As recently as 2007, scientists at Tufts University in Boston conducted a study showing that arthritis pain increased incrementally with every 10-degree drop in temperature; changes in barometric pressure also produced increased pain.
Facts/Definitions
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Why would barometric pressure affect joints in animals or humans? To answer this, one must first understand what barometric pressure is. Colin Marquis, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel, says, "Most people don't think that air has weight, but air is made of molecules and those molecules do have a measurable weight. When we talk about barometric pressure, we're talking about that weight." He uses an analogy that helps explain the effects of air pressure. "You take a balloon and you put it into a vacuum. As the pressure is reduced around that balloon, it expands," he explained. "And so the same thing within the tissues around the joints. If there's already swelling, inflammation, abnormal mechanics in the joint, as the pressure goes down, the gas and tissue expand, and this is felt as more pain by the patient. This is why they sense a change in barometric pressure."
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Expert Insight
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Dr. Rob Danoff, an osteopath and program director of The Family Practice Residency in Philadelphia, as well as a regular contributor to Discovery Health Online and The New York Times Special Features, seems to agree. He tells of the story of a patient with a "weather knee." Dr. Danoff says 93-year-old Edna has been correctly predicting the weather in the 12 years he has been treating her. A little tongue-in-cheek, he adds, "...even if science cannot prove beyond a doubt that Edna's knee is predicting a snowstorm, I can tell you, when she "feels" a blizzard coming, I make sure my snow shovel's in good working order."
Dr. John Parenti, director of the Orthopedics Department at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., takes a more pragmatic view. Although he doesn't rule out a connection between weather changes and joint pain, he says, "I wouldn't base any kind of treatment on it." He does agree that the nerve receptors in the joints can feel the effects of increased barometric pressure, but for most people the effects are more annoying than debilitating.
Is It All in Your Head?
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Dr. Parenti's view falls more in line with most studies that failed to find a medical correlation between changes in weather and increased joint pain. An article published by the Carl R. Darnell Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, points out that people who pay attention to the weather when their joints hurt may not notice the weather at all when feeling no pain. Because of this, joint pain is almost always associated with bad weather.
Significance
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So what does all this really mean? Even if it is all psychological, if you suffer from arthritis and think you feel weather changes in your joints, you might want to pack that umbrella the next time your fingers get stiff or your knees ache. For those of us who aren't prone to feeling joint aches and pains, follow a simple travel rule. Eat where the natives do -- or in this case, watch your arthritic grandmother.
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