Barbara submitted this question: I’m curious about connections that may exist between the weather and back pain (and pain in general caused by fibromyalgia and arthritis, which my partner has). It always seems like changes in the weather, or severely cold weather, or precipitation of any kind increases my partner’s pain. What’s this all about? And is there anything we can do to mitigate the pain ahead of time, like after checking the weather forecast but before the weather event has happened?
Well you definitely do not need me to confirm that weather does indeed have an effect on how your partner feels. Both joint pain and fibromyalgia/myofascial pain can be exacerbated by changes in the weather.
As it pertains to arthritis, the pain seems to be specifically related to drastic changes in barometric pressure. The question of how these changes influence fibromyalgia is a little more complicated.
Fibromyalgia pain can be worsened by changes in temperature (up or down) changes in barometric pressure, and humidity. And to make matters worse, there seems to be a correlation to length of day (similar to that experienced by persons with seasonal affective disorder or SAD.) In fact, these and other factors make up parts of the calculations resulting in the daily ‘pain index’ which can help persons with fibromyalgia estimate how their symptoms will play out over the following several days.
SInce controlling the weather is not really an option (unless you do what many ‘fibromites’ do and move to someplace where the climate is more consistent than Philadelphia) there are a few other things you can do:
1) Regardless of the weather conditions, make efforts to remain active- stretching, walks- anything which helps to maintain mobility.
2) HYDRATE!!!! Good hydration can help to clear many of the cellular waste products which can aggregate in myofascial layers, resulting in trigger points. DRINK!
3) Make efforts to protect your sleep. Regular, uninterrupted sleep is one of the few things which fibromites consistently site as a source of relief.
4) Dress in order to maintain a reasonably consistent comfortable temperature, and adjust quickly when transitioning from inside to outside. This does not just hold true for going from a warm inside to a cold outside- going from a temperate outside to an overly air conditioned inside can be as bad or worse.
I hope this is helpful.
Fibromyalgia is such a complicated issue, and each individual has different means & methods of coping with the symptoms. Please share your experiences, successes and failures, with our viewers.
Thanks for your question Barabara!
