I first heard about biometeorology back in the 1980s -- studies were being done in Arizona with seniors relating chronic pain and the weather. The better the weather, the less the pain. That’s part of what biometeorology is, the study of weather conditions on the well-being of humans and other living organisms. We all experience some of this often. For instance, high pollens or winds blowing in dust can send a lot of us to the pharmacy, if not the ER. And even today we have an air quality alert for anyone with respiratory problems due to wildfire smoke coming in from the Northwest.
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But I can’t tell you the number of people who claim to have back, neck, or knee joints that predict changing weather! When those pains start to flare, they can tell you it’s going to rain! In fact, 75% of patients insists their chronic pains fluctuate with weather.
Studies of this chronic pain/weather relationship have up until recently been rather flawed -- either not enough participants could be enrolled (usually less than a thousand) and/or not enough days of study were available, usually fewer than 50. And exactly which pains are affected and by what weather?
In came science and technology thanks to David Schultz, professor at the University of Manchester UK, and rheumatologist professor Will Dixon who created a fitting app called “Cloudy with a Chance of Pain”!
More than 10,000 people suffering from chronic pain downloaded the app to submit when their chronic pain showed up worse than the day before. Using GPS locations, the app could tell the scientists where those patients were located and, ergo, what the weather was that day.
The app had a great rate of success: 80% of users entered data at least once, 52% continued seven days, and 11% hung on from 200 days up to 456 days! They rated their pain on a one to five scale and then the scientists mapped out the top 10% days with the most and least pain and compared that to weather at the same time. I know, this map below looks pretty scary:
Here is the bottom line: on days of high pressure when we have dry weather, calm winds, and even lower humidity chronic pain is less likely in our bodies, while during low pressure days -- rain, higher humidity, higher winds -- we are more likely to experience that pain.
Now, to be sure, upon hearing these results a lot of people will respond “Well, tell me something I didn’t already know!” but, we can now respond that science backs up those weather-pain claims! Thanks to the efforts of professors Schultz and Dixon, along with Anna L. Beukenhorst, Belay Birlie Yimer, Louise Cook, Huai Leng Pisaniello, Thomas House, Carolyn Gamble, Jamie C. Sergeant, John McBeth and William G. Dixon; all of whom worked on this project.
Your doctor may not always believe you, but your weatherman does! Have a painless day!
Frank