Rainy Weather Doesn’t Make Those Old Bones Ache Research by a Clearwater, FL organization that has been studying OA for more than 20 years proves there’s only a very slight relationship between the two—and only in women with aching hands. A study completed by the Arthritis Research Institute of America (ARIA) asked 154 adults 49 years of age and older with OA to keep three-year diaries of pain in their hands, neck, shoulder, knees and feet. Their pain scales were compared to weather records from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Researchers found no significant evidence of a link between OA pain and temperature or precipitation. It was only in women with hand osteoarthritis that days with rising barometric pressure were associated with more pain. “There are so many variables to consider when studying the weather, but the only link we found between pain and the weather was in women with hand OA,” said Frances Vaughn Wilder, PhD, the study’s lead researcher and ARIA’s executive director. “Maybe Mom knows best after all.” The study that correlates osteoarthritis pain and the weather was published in the peer-reviewed Rheumatology and was co-written by Dr. Wilder, former ARIA executive director Betty Jean Hall, RN and John P. Barrett, MD, an orthopedic surgeon who is also ARIA’s founder and the president of its board of directors. Since 1988, the Arthritis Research Institute of America (ARIA) has been studying thousands of participants to learn more about osteoarthritis. The 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit research organization is based in Clearwater, FL, but its findings have been published worldwide. ARIA’s x-ray database is globally acknowledged as one of the most complete sources of information about the progression of osteoarthritis. For information, call (727) 461-4054.
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Osteoarthritis (OA) Bring Out the Flip-Flops and Sneakers, Better for Osteoarthritis Hope For Those With Osteoarthritis Knee Pain |
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Grandpa may have been convinced that bad weather made his old bones ache but—like other myths about swallowing bubble gum or waiting a half hour after lunch to jump in the pool—the connection between bad weather and an increase in osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms is mostly an old wives’ tale. 
