Re: Two weather services give you a heads up when joint achiness is in the forecast.

[Guest guest]

Really glad that I found this group. Lately I have had the worst flare up.

What drugs do you all take? Has anyone tried celebrex and if so does it work?

Thank you ahead of time for your input.

a Papola <a54@...> wrote: Two weather services give you a

heads up when joint achiness is in

the forecast.

Next time you wake up with unexpected aches and pains, take a peek

outside to see if a storm is coming. Your joints may have detected

bad weather on the horizon.

“The weather making joints hurt is more than just a myth,” says

, MD, rheumatologist and chair of rheumatology at Piedmont

Hospital in Atlanta. “I see it in my patients who experience morning

stiffness and have red, hot, swollen and painful joints when a front

is approaching.”

New research presented at the 2005 American College of Rheumatology

Annual Scientific Meeting backs up what some rheumatologists and

their patients have noticed for years.

Researchers in Tokyo studied 1,833 people with rheumatoid arthritis

(RA). The doctors looked at the number of swollen, tender joints in

the patients, and they measured inflammation by determining levels of

C-reactive protein, high levels of which indicate acute inflammation,

and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, which measures chronic

inflammation. Results over a three-year period show that each year

disease activity dropped sharply between spring and fall, when

weather is typically calmer, and then increased significantly between

fall and spring, when more storms occur.

“When people feel pain during a weather change, it is often not

precipitation or humidity causing the problem, but changing

barometric pressure,” says , a meteorologist with the

Weather Channel in Atlanta. “As storms approach, barometric pressure

– the weight exerted by air – falls, resulting in many people

experiencing an increase in aches and pains.”

A decline in barometric pressure may make inflamed joints swell,

which in theory could stretch the thin tissue lining the capsule

surrounding a joint, called the synovium.

In the late 1980s, cable TV’s Weather Channel created its “Aches and

Pains” Index to give people a heads up when weather might induce pain

in those who are vulnerable. The index ranks days on a scale of one

(weather-induced pain is minimal) to 10 (likely increase in pain)

based on barometric pressure, humidity, precipitation, temperature

and wind. A day that ranks a 10 most likely is rainy and turning

colder with a large drop in barometric pressure, says . A day

with high pressure that’s dry and sunny with a light wind will rank

low on the aches and pain scale.

AccuWeather (www.accuweather.com) has an online service called the

“Arthritis Index,” which ranks the potential severity of weather-

related arthritis pain from low to extreme.

Why do weather services provide such indexes? To help you plan

activities – like your daily walks – and prepare to take better care

of yourself when your pain may be increased. You can’t change the

weather, but you can change how it affects you. When an index

predicts a painful stretch of days, be proactive by taking anti-

inflammatory medication, soaking in warm water, using braces or

assistive devices, as necessary, walking and stretching.

http://www.arthritis.org/resources/arthritistoday/2006_archives/

2006_03_04/Bad_Storm_YHM.asp