Why do my joints hurt more when it rains? - Big Questions - (Ep. 203) | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm Craig, insert joke here, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube

Today I'm going to answer Starling UK's big question. I have arthritis, why do my joints hurt more when it rains

Many people with arthritis have noticed joint pain during weather changes. Experts still aren't positive that this is a consistent or even real phenomenon

But, there's some research on it and I'm going to talk about it to you today, because that's what I do, I talk at you about stuff

Then let's get started! In a study published in the journal Pain, a psychologist surveyed people with chronic

pain in four different U.S. cities, San Diego, Nashville, Boston, and Worcester, Massachusetts

He found that two-thirds of patients claimed that the weather had an impact on their pain

They also reported feeling those impacts before the weather itself changed. Other studies have concluded that people with joint pain are affected by any severe weather

change, including rain. I'm only happy when it rains. I'm only happy when it's complicated

No, but seriously. It's worth noting that changes in weather don't change the severity of arthritis, it

just temporarily affects the symptoms. Still, some experts aren't convinced that the weather is connected to chronic pain or

joint pain. Many claim that this phenomenon has been studied for a very long time, but no researcher has

observed a true objective relationship between joint pain and extreme weather For instance a study conducted in the mid examined 18 people who had rheumatoid arthritis and couldn find a connection between the two The professor who designed the study believed that the phenomenon was all psychological

And it's still the case that most of the claims about joint pain and weather are anecdotal

evidence, like the study in the four cities. Yet other experts insist that there's science that proves the relationship between the two

They just don't give up. They got moxie. Chutzpah. Pluck. Pluck. The prevailing theory about this now is that barometric pressure causes the pain

Barometric pressure is the weight of the atmosphere at a given moment. Everyone's joints have baroreceptors, which are sensitive to changes in barometric pressure

When that happens, the fluid in the tissue might expand, and that swelling causes the already sensitive joint to rub against muscles and nerves

And that will make a person feel more achy than usual. Arthritis is a disease that affects every part of the joint, including the joint lining

and some ligaments. These parts of the body have a lot of nerve endings, so it makes sense that they'd be

sensitive to swelling too. who believe this also point out that it happens to everyone, but people without arthritis

aren't as sensitive to it because they tend to have more cartilage protecting them