April Showers Bring Joint Pain
Everyone knows the saying “April showers bring May flowers”, but have you ever noticed that with the rain comes joint pain as well? Have you ever wondered why joint pain was triggered by bad weather? A study conducted and published in the journal Pain compared the joint pain between four cities with different climates. The four cities included; Nashville, San Diego, Boston and Worcester. Two-thirds of the participants stated that they could feel pain before they experienced bad weather. This statistic would make it seem that joint pain and bad weather are correlated. However, the science behind it does not prove much yet. Many scientists believe the reason we experience pain with bad weather is because of the barometric pressure. Barometric pressure is the weight of the atmosphere around us. This means that there is constantly pressure against our bodies. When the barometric pressure drops, as it often does before bad weather, the tissues in our body are able to expand or swell. For example, have you ever noticed that while on an airplane your feet and hands will start to swell? This is due to the low barometric pressure. When our tissues expand around our joints this gives them little room to move comfortably, or without pain. Though remember this is still just a hypothesis, but it makes sense.
So what do you do to help control the pain when there is bad weather? I have a few tips that may help when pain occurs. First, stay warm. Wrap yourself in a heated blanket, wear clothes straight from the drier or make sure you warm your house or car up. Second, try to prevent swelling from occurring. For example, got to bed with spandex gloves on to prevent fluid from entering the joints. Lastly, always remember that weather joint pain is temporary and it will go away.
