Does thinking about the cold weather and your associated body aches and pains make you want to run away or even relocate? Are you struggling to get out of your warm bed in the morning? Are you feeling stiff and sore before even moving?
We all know an elderly relative who firmly believes that the cold weather and their increased joint pain and stiffness are directly connected. There is no real evidence and concrete agreement among scientists regarding the relationship between cold weather and increased joint pain, but there are some plausible theories.
The main theory is the change in barometric pressure, which is the weight of the atmosphere that surrounds us. As the weather cools down, the barometric pressure drops, resulting in an increase in volume. There is less pressure against the tissue that surrounds our joints, which leads to an increase in volume and swelling of the tissue around an arthritic of inflamed joint. This increased pressure tends to cause more pain in chronic pain patients, due to the presence of hypersensitive nerves as a result of inflammation, scar tissue and adhesion. Frances Wilder, an epidemiologist and the director of research at the Arthritis Research Institute of America in Clearwater, says it’s important to realize that the change in pressure is microscopic, but because of the hypersensitivity of the nerves, small changes in pressure result in more pain.