Cold and humidity really increase joint pain: confirmed in a study

It's not just rumors, cold, humid weather actually increases joint pain, a new study has shown.

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Many people blame joint pain when the weather is cold and wet but if it is popularly known, few researches have scientifically proved it.

To fill this gap, researchers at the University of Manchester surveyed over 13.000 people in the UK and recorded their pain symptoms every day using a specially developed smartphone app. Their phones meanwhile recorded the weather conditions.

2.658 of those surveyed, with various health problems including arthritis, provided daily data for about 6 months, which allowed the researchers to discover that humid days increase the chances of experiencing pain by 20%, and the pain also increases on days with low pressure and higher wind speed. Rain was not associated with the problem.

So according to this research, titled "Cloudy with a Chance of Pain," the combination of cold and humid days would make matters worse even though high relative humidity is the most important factor.

Study author Will Dixon, professor of digital epidemiology, said about the research:

"This would mean that if the chances of a painful day on an average weather day were 5 in 100, it would increase to 6 in 100 on a wet and windy day."

Having shown that a correlation exists between the two could help sufferers to better plan their activities, for example avoiding more complex tasks on colder and wetter days, as stated by Dixon:

“Since we can predict the weather, it may be possible to develop a pain prediction by knowing the relationship between time and pain. This would allow people with chronic pain to plan their activities, completing more difficult tasks on scheduled days for lower pain levels. The dataset will also provide information to scientists interested in understanding the mechanisms of pain, which may eventually open the door to new treatments. "

In short, if you accused the bad weather of your pain, now even science approves!

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