Thursday, January 12, 2017

Weather Isn't Causing Your Bummer

People often say they feel weather coming in their bones but I've never felt anything even when it seems like I should after busting so many of them.  Now the science says there's nothing in it.  (Science Daily:  Weather's not to blame for your aches and pains)

Almost 1000 people with lower back pain, and around 350 with knee osteoarthritis were recruited for the Australian-based studies.  Weather data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology were sourced for the duration of the study period.  Researchers compared the weather at the time patients first noticed pain with weather conditions one week and one month before the onset of pain as a control measure.

Results showed no association between back pain and temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction or precipitation.  However, higher temperatures did slightly increase the chances of lower back pain, but the amount of the increase was not clinically important.

- SD

The researchers observed social media types went berserk the last time they did any science of this nature but we see social media science every time there's another measles outbreak.


Any pain is real if you feel it but you may be sourcing it incorrectly to weather when something else is driving it.  Arguing this is not my purpose since the researchers presented their information based on a sample of well over one thousand people and personal opinions really don't add much to that.

The achey feeling from colds, etc will make my broken bones get hurty but I've never noticed any association with weather since colds come at any time.  That's just my sample size of one so take it or leave it as you will.


@YevetteN, you probably won't agree with the result and I'm not going to run away from what I just wrote but human experience is more complex than a single study of this nature will reveal.  Maybe there's something similar in a sailor feeling a sea change coming.  Maybe he smells it on the air, maybe he feels it in his bones ... how should I know.  Who knows if it's true but a sailor who can't do it will likely end up telling his tale to King Neptune.

Roll it, "Poseidon Adventure!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I disagree. I get what I call my "Snow Headache"--it's caused by a change in the barometric pressure. This change also effects joints (synovial fluid). I've experienced this for years.

Unknown said...

Disagreement is what makes it entertaining. The researchers weren't querying their subjects about that kind of headache pain, at least I don't think they were, so they have a whole new study to run. The synovial fluid aspect may be what people call the rheumatizz and that's the aspect which puzzles me. Due to bone smashage in the shoulder particularly there should be weather pain but it doesn't happen. I hear people saying they can feel a weather change coming in their bones but I really never did. That's not to offer argument but rather puzzlement and the researchers have quite a bit of work yet to do to get it sorted.

Anonymous said...

...because your bones 'been smashed to bits...smashed the fluid right out!!

Unknown said...

They just pack my shoulder with axle grease and I'm ready for 100,000 miles (larfs)