Why does rain make pain worse?

Understanding the relationship between weather and pain will help scientists find new ways to treat and relieve pain.

People have found a connection between bad weather and long-term chronic aches and pains . Even some people can predict before sunny weather based on their pain.

Scientists have studied more than 9,000 people suffering from chronic pain, such as arthritis, back pain and migraine . The team asked them to note symptoms and attacks. Their daily pain by using a smartphone application. This application is also associated with the collection of weather information every hour. This allows scientists to assess the relationship between the weather and the severity of the patient's pain.

Rain causes a bad mood and chronic pain becomes more intense.(Photo source: independent.co.uk).

Volunteers who participated in three different cities - Leeds, Norwich and London (UK) showed that, when the number of sunny days increased from February to June, the period of time when sick people suffered from pain abuse has decreased markedly. Meanwhile, the wet weather from June onwards combined with reduced sunshine hours made the patient's pain level rise quite high. This research project lasts 18 months, currently underway to the middle stage. Researchers have decided to report preliminary results to the British Science Council.

Professor Will Dixon, an expert in arthritis at Salford Royal Hospital and lead researcher, said 80% of his patients thought there was a connection between weather and pain. . 50% of patients believe that it is possible to predict the weather through pain.

Chronic pain may be the result of chronic disease processes in body structures (such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, postoperative pain .), internal organs or disorders functions in parts of the peripheral nervous system (such as nerve root disease, trigeminal pain .) or both. Chronic pain may also be caused by psychological or environmental factors (such as muscle tension, migraine headaches, etc.).

There is a link between cold temperatures, humidity and pain.

Inflammation is a positive self-defense response. When infected with a virus or scratch, the immune system sends white blood cells to kill infectious agents. Once the risk is killed, the immune system will call the white blood cells back. Over the past decade, researchers have begun to realize that, sometimes, the immune system continues to give alert signals even when wounds have been treated, causing chronic inflammation and related to some serious diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.

Talking about rain and pain, Will said: "I certainly have a link between cold temperatures, humidity and pain. Besides, rainfall also plays an important part in causing the pain ". Dixon said the sun will make people feel better and this will release hormones that reduce pain.

Professor Dixon, a digital epidemiologist at the University of Manchester, said: "I hope this study will help patients who can plan to deal with their pain accordingly. In addition, an in-depth understanding of the link between pain and weather will allow medical researchers to discover new treatments for pain relief. "