RAIN MAY NOT CAUSE ACHY JOINTS AFTER ALL
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Many people insist their joints ache more when it rains. But that popular notion might be all wet, a new study suggests. The study of more than 1.5 million older Americans found that people were no more likely to visit the doctor with joint or back pain during rainy weeks than sunny ones. Even among people with arthritis, there was no connection between rainfall and patient complaints about aches and pains. The findings cast doubt on the idea that an achy knee can predict rainfall, said lead researcher Dr.Anupam Jena, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
“No matter how we analyzed it, we didn’t see a relationship,” Jena said.
The idea that weather affects bodily symptoms goes back to ancient times, he noted. And still today, many people firmly believe that certain weather conditions make their joint pain worse.