Weather and Pain

[JustJayne01]

I have advanced degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis and spondylosis, the pain is unbearable at times, especially in my arm, but I have an occipital nerve block done every six months for that and it helps.
A so called "Pain Specialist" advised me (not the one I see for my ON injections) that I didn't have DDD, I actually had Fibromyalgia, which I refuse to accept, it seems to be the answer for anyone suffering any type of chronic pain and even though I do have a lot of the symptoms, anyone with any type of chronic pain suffers them!
My question is this, my pain is always worse in colder months and in summer, even though it's there, it isn't as severe; has it been proved that cold weather does affect painful joint conditions of any kind?

[wendygreen]

Hi,

I too have degenerative disc disease in my neck and have found that doing specific neck exercises for the problem - as advised by a physiotherapist, has helped to reduce the pain - especially down my arm. The exercises not only help to improve your range of movement, ease stiffness and strengthen the muscles, but also actually help to relieve the cause of the pain - the discs pressing on a nerve. If you haven't already, I'd recommend asking your GP for a referral to a physiotherapist. While you can't 'cure' arthritis you CAN find ways to manage the condition.

With regard to pain and the weather - many people feel their pain is worse in the cold weather. A study in 2007at Tufts University in Boston suggested that every 10 degree drop in temperature resulted in an incremental increase in arthritis pain. They also claimed that raised barometric pressure triggered increased pain.

You may also be interested to know that a group of scientists at Manchester University are currently doing a study called 'Cloudy with a Chance of Pain' to look for evidence of a link between weather and pain http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/ne ... ce-of-pain It'll be interesting to hear their conclusions when the study ends in January 2017!

Best wishes,

Wendy