SAN ANTONIO, Texas – While almost every doctor has heard his or her patients say that weather impacts how they feel, new research now confirms that the weather does indeed affect your creaky arthritic joints. "People have such strong convictions about influences of the weather on arthritis that studies of this question can suffer from biases on either side," said. Timothy E. McAlindon, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Tufts–New England Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

Most scientific studies on the subject haven't produced adequately acceptable evidence that there is a connection. Dr. McAlindon and his colleagues compared data from the Online Glucosamine Trial—-a large-scale study of an over-the-counter arthritis treatment—-with data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Because the online study collected pain data without reference to weather conditions at locations all over the United States, the bias concern was diminished, Dr. McAlindon said. The study tracked 205 patients and found that weather data could be correlated with 186 of them. Patients experienced more joint pain when the temperature dropped and barometric pressure increased. Exactly why those conditions result in pain is still under study, Dr. McAlindon said. However, he added it is well accepted that barometric pressure can have physiological effects, citing SCUBA divers' reactions to changes in pressure as an example of that phenomenon. Dr. McAlindon discussed his findings at the 2004 annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

The effect of cooler weather was a weak but significant factor in pain, Dr. McAlindon said. His study showed that pain increases about 0.1 on the WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index) pain scale for every degree decrease in temperature. Also, he said that the effect of barometric pressure was more significant, with patients experiencing a 2-point increase in pain for every 1-inch change in barometric pressure.

However, Joseph Flood, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, who moderated the ACR press briefing, stated that "increases in barometric pressure usually indicate fair weather. It is counterintuitive that increases in barometric pressure would result in an increase in pain." Yet Dr. Flood agreed that the studies show that "there is a relationship between weather and pain."

Reference:

McAlindon TE, Formica MK, Fletcher J, Schmid S. Barometric Pressure and Ambient Temperature Influences Ostoarthritis (OA) Pain. Results of a National Web-Based Prospective Study. Presented at: Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology; October 18, 2004; San Antonio, Tex. Abstract 596.