Why do old injuries hurt more when the weather changes?
There are many reasons why we don’t like cold and damp, including its potential effects on our bodies. People often complain that pain from old injuries, such as broken bones or sprains, as well as chronic conditions like arthritis, flare up when it’s cold or rainy. Hippocrates complained about the same thing a few
2500 years.
“Sure, it’s something I’ve seen in my own patients,” Jennifer Moriatis Wolf, a physician and professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at the University of Chicago Medical School, said. “Patients say, ‘I can tell when it’s going to rain. I can tell when it’s going to snow.’”
Although doctors agree that such complaints are common, the reasons behind the phenomenon remain unclear. Little research has been done on this, and some of the studies that do exist have led to confusing and conflicting conclusions. However, other studies seem to indicate that changes over time can induce inflammation and affect the communication of nerves surrounding injured or inflamed tissues with the brain. This brings back or amplifies the pain sensations.
Is there a relationship between time and pain?
It depends on who you ask. A study published in 2016 investigated the link between the weather and pain associated with broken bones. The researchers examined data from 2,369 doctor visits after patients suffered bone fractures. At follow-up appointments, the researchers asked the patients how much pain they were experiencing and recorded data on that day’s weather conditions, including temperature, air pressure, and humidity. Patients reported more pain at the follow-up check one year later if the air pressure — which often drops just before storms and cold fronts — was low and if the relative humidity was greater than 70 percent on the day of the query. However, the study did not find that cold temperatures made pain worse (instead, surprisingly, patients reported more pain when the temperature outside was above 35 degrees Fahrenheit).
Studies investigating the relationship between weather and pain associated with chronic disease are also somewhat puzzling. In a 2019 study ad hoc dubbed “Cloudy with Pain Odds,” researchers analyzed self-reported pain levels collected daily via smartphone over the course of 15 months in 2,658 people living with conditions that affected them. They caused chronic pain. The researchers examined the patients’ pain ratings, recorded during various local weather conditions, and found that their pain worsened when humidity increased and air pressure decreased. However, the study did not find a connection between pain and outside temperature.
A 2007 study found the opposite: Arthritis-associated pain in the knees increased with every 10-degree Fahrenheit drop in temperature, but the pain subsided when air pressure dropped. Another study found no link between changes in temperature and pain from hip arthritis.
