Why Autumn Weather Is Often Miserable for Pain Patients

Intellectually, I love the concept of a crisp autumn day. I love the idea of pumpkin spice lattes, crockpot chili, and cozy scarfs. But in practice, the intense temperature swings are pretty horrible for me every year.

The cool fall weather here in Northern Illinois is always devastating on my body. Indeed, my chronic pain has been 10/10 the last few days as the temperatures start their yearly drop, and it rains non-stop. 

It’s the same with spring too. Regardless of how much I’m longing for warmer weather every March, the shift from winter to summer means I spend most of the spring in too much pain to function. 

To me, it is obvious that these weather changes impact my pain. I’ve been dealing with it for more than a decade now. And every year, spring and autumn are especially bad. 

Surprisingly, the medical community still questions whether or not the link between weather and pain is real though – and if it is real, why it might be happening. 

“Research still hasn't confirmed a cause-and-effect link between weather and joint pain, though many people insist they can predict the weather based on such aches,” writes Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief of Harvard Women's Health Watch, in a 2022 article in Harvard Health,  

A 2015 study looked at whether daily weather conditions and changes in the weather influenced joint pain in older people with osteoarthritis in six European countries.

While they did find a causal link, they hesitated to call it a direct cause, saying that “the associations between day-to-day weather changes and pain do not confirm causation.”

In other words, researchers did not want to say outright that changes in the weather directly causes pain spikes. 

So I guess you’ll have to hear it from me instead: As a chronic pain patient, I can confirm that the effect is real, and it’s not in your head. Weather definitely causes pain spikes.

What might be causing it though? Golen explains that one theory is that changes in barometric pressure — which often happen as the weather changes — trigger pain in the joints. 

“Less air pressure surrounding the body can allow muscles, tendons, and other tissues around joints to expand,” she explains. “This can place pressure on joints, possibly leading to pain.”

Another theory is that cold, damp days make you more likely to do things that can worsen joint pain or stiffness, such as sitting on the couch too long watching movies. 

“Also, since you're expecting discomfort when the weather shifts, you may notice joint aches more than you would otherwise,” Golen adds. “To ward off weather-related joint pain, keep moving with regular exercise and stretching.”

I have to say, the second theory reads as a bit insulting to me. It sounds like health professionals are trying to find another way to blame patients for their pain. 

Personally, I also know that being sedentary is not the cause of my increased pain when the weather changes. That’s partly because when I wake up with pain in the morning, trying to shower and get out of the house quickly is likely to aggravate it. Also, as someone who works from home, I spend most of my days sitting down with a laptop and that usually doesn’t cause my pain to spike.  

As a chronic patient, I also don’t need a study to confirm my experience. I know weather changes cause a pain spike for me, and over the years I’ve learned to cope with it by accepting it. My life is set up so that most of the time, on bad pain days, I have the ability to rest as needed. 

When I first started having daily chronic pain, I would get very stressed about pain spikes, which would make them worse and harder to get under control. But now I know that keeping myself as calm as possible is the key to riding it out. 

I also know that it’s very likely that the pain will start to subside to more manageable levels after a couple of days at the most. And I know to take advantage of my low-pain days to get as much done as possible. In fact, I’m using one this week to write this column.

To me, the link between weather changes and pain spikes is so obvious, that I can’t even believe any doctors would still question it. If you’re among those struggling as the seasons change though, just know, I believe you. 

UK Study Finds Weather Can Worsen Chronic Pain

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Do you feel “under the weather” when its rainy and cold outside? About 75% of chronic pain sufferers believe certain weather conditions can aggravate their pain. Some even think they can predict a storm coming because they “can feel it in their bones.”

A new analysis of weather patterns in the United Kingdom suggests there may be some truth to those old clichés.

For 15 months, researchers at the University Manchester collected data from over 10,500 UK residents, who recorded their daily pain levels on a smartphone app. The GPS location of their phones was then compared to local weather conditions.

The study found a modest association between weather and pain, with people more likely to feel pain on days with low barometric pressure – and the wet and windy weather that usually comes with it.

The key appears to be the upper level jet stream – a narrow band of air currents that circle the globe several miles above the earth. On days when the jet stream was aimed right at the UK, with above normal wind, humidity and precipitation, about 23% of people reported more pain.

But when the jet stream blew north of the UK, and pressure was above normal with less humidity and precipitation, only 10% of people reported higher pain levels.

“Although the weather may not be the primary cause of people’s pain, our results through multiple independent methodologies demonstrate that weather does modulate pain in at least some individuals,” lead author David Schultz reported in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

“The results of this project should give comfort and support to those who have claimed that the weather affects their pain, but have been dismissed by their friends, their coworkers, and even their doctors.“

The new analysis builds on earlier research from the Cloudy With a Chance of Pain study, which is the largest in both duration and number of participants to examine the link between weather and pain.  Previous studies have found little or no association between the two.

A 2014 Australian study, for example, found that acute low back pain was not associated with variations in temperature, humidity and rain.  And a 2013 Dutch study concluded that weather had no impact on fibromyalgia symptoms in women.

“Part of the reason for this lack of consensus is that previous researchers have treated the different measures of the weather such as pressure, temperature, humidity separately, which assumes that one could vary the temperature while holding all of the other weather measures fixed. Of course, the real atmosphere does not behave like this, as all the variables are changing simultaneously,” says Schultz.

Schultz and his colleagues plan to further study the data to see how environmental conditions modulate pain, insight that could be used to develop better treatments and individualized pain forecasts.