Weather effects in rheumatoid arthritis: from controversy to consensus. A review.

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J Rheumatol. 2004 Jul;31(7):1327-34.

Weather effects in rheumatoid arthritis: from controversy to consensus.

A review.

Patberg WR, Rasker JJ.

Department of Medical Physiology, University of Groningen, Groningen,

The Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE: To review and evaluate the evidence for the widespread view

that signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are influenced, or

even caused, by the weather. METHODS: A literature search from 1985 to

April 2003 was performed using the PubMed database of the US National

Library of Medicine. Additional relevant articles were identified from

the bibliographies, and from our own archives. Methods and findings of

the studies were critically reviewed. RESULTS: Only temperature and

humidity appear to have clear influences on the symptoms of RA, although

the reported findings do not agree. In many cases, the apparent

controversies can be explained by the intimate relationship between

temperature and humidity, and by taking local circumstances into

account. The differences in the methods applied in studies on effects of

weather on RA strongly hampered our evaluation.

CONCLUSION: RA variables are positively correlated with the humidity of

the microclimate at the patient's skin. High outdoor relative humidity

is unfavorable, but has less influence when there are few barriers for

water vapor, like clothes, and when air conditioning is used. High

temperature is unfavorable since it increases absolute humidity, but

beneficial as well, since it reduces the presence of barriers, and

stimulates the use of air conditioning. The classic opinion, " Cold and

wet is bad, warm and dry is good for RA patients, " seems to be true only

as far as humidity is concerned.

PMID: 15229951

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