“Is Weather-Related Pain Real ?”
Is it true that weather-related pain can predict a change in the weather, when old injuries start “acting up?” The perceived relationship between changes in weather and pain has been recorded since the classical Roman age. In about 400 B.C., Hippocrates was the first to note that many illnesses were related to changes in season. The large body of folklore about how weather affects pain is reflected by traditional expressions, such as “aches and pain, coming rains,” “feeling under the weather,” and “ill health due to evil winds.” According to Wikipedia, the first publication of documented changes in pain perception associated with the weather was in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in 1887. This case report described a person with phantom limb pain who concluded that “approaching storms, dropping barometric pressure and rain were associated with increased pain complaint.” Most investigations examining the relationship between weather and pain have studied people diagnosed with arthritis. After reviewing many case reports, Rentshler reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1929, that there was strong evidence that “warm weather is beneficial and barometric pressure changes are detrimental to patients with arthritis.”
