The weather and Pain

kpollard

Hi everyone I live in a generally very damp area high up inYorkshire . My arthritis hurts so much with the local weather. Does anyone else live in a damp area and how do you manage the pain associated with the weather ? I only get light relief when we have a good day and that’s not often ! The physiotherapist suggested I live abroad for 6 months out of the year but sadly this is not possible . Any help , ideas would be great . TIA X k 😊 😋

Shell_H

Hi @kpollard, I’m not sure how much help it is to know, but there has been some research done showing a definitive link between arthritis pain and the weather:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2019/october/new-research-indicates-links-between-weather-and-arthritis-pain/

Sadly the take-home seems to be that this can allow us to plan more strenuous activity around the weather to give a better chance of success. not really a huge amount of help when the weather is often unhelpful and moving isn’t an option!

On a more practical side, I’ve had a look around and some of the more common suggestions to help are:

• Wear layers and long underwear
• use heat pads - especially the reusable ones which can go in the microwave and also smell nice
• Having hot baths or showers regularly
• Stretching and light exercise when the weather is better to help the rest of the time - especially outside where possible.
• Being kind to yourself and allowing yourself to say that sometimes you just can’t.

I hope this helps a little!

Shell

kpollard

Hi Shell

thank you for this information. I will def try your suggestions.like the sound of heat pads as I know heat def makes me feel better.

thanks again

karen

Lilymary

I used to live in SE England, but now live in the NW, where we get a LOT of rain. I've suffered from what you describe for as long as I can remember, certainly before I was 5 yrs old (we moved when I was 4 and a half, and I can remember suffering from this in our first home, which was very cold). I always associated cold damp weather with painful ankles, and I was 12 when I found out not everyone had this, I just assumed it was normal. I’m now 61.

I’ve noticed this gets worse not just in cold weather, but humidity also affects it, ie cold and damp OR warm and damp. My solution? Basically, I make sure I keep my feet and legs warm, even in summer. So I’m almost never bare-legged, and only go without socks when it’s really hot.

Before I was diagnosed with OA about 4 months ago, I just used to take paracetamol if it got bad. Now I’m on so much pain relief for my wrecked hip the rheumatic pain in my ankles barely gets a look in.

someone on this site posted about it being to do with changes in atmospheric pressure relative to “normal’ pressure in our joints, which seemed to make sense, and explains why we can “feel it in our bones” when the weather is changing.

N1gel

Re atmospheric pressure and joints/injuries. A long time ago when I was young and foolish I fell over and landed on my ankle on an upturned electric plug, ouch! The ankle swelled up a bit but I could still bear weight and drove to meet some friends at an airfield.

Someone offered me a joyride in a light aeroplane (unpressurised) we only went up a few thousand feet but when we landed my ankle had swollen up so much and was so painful I nearly fainted trying to walk.

Airwave!

Your swelling tissue was probably to do with injury and poor venous return caused by sitting in a fixed position with bent knees rather than air pressure?

The research revealed the links to Lower barometric pressure, damp and cold temperature and how the bodies joints are afflicted but never went on to explain the process. I expect more research will reveal that?

its a grin, honest!

Mike1

The weather is a pain sometimes!

N1gel

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/671519#Comment_671519

Could be, but I'd been sitting in a bent knee position all the way there in the car. Far more cramped than the aeroplane. But we'll never know now.