A new study has revealed that humid, windy days with low pressure worsens pain in people with long-term health conditions.
A research from the University of Manchester in England showed that people with conditions such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, migraine and neuropathic pain are 20% more likely to suffer pain in humid, windy days.
Study author Will Dixon, professor of Digital Epidemiology, said: "This would mean that, if your chances of a painful day on an average weather day were 5 in 100, they would increase to 6 in 100 on a damp and windy day."
According to data analysis, relatively high humidity is the most important factor in pain levels and to a lesser extent, low pressure and higher wind speed are also linked to increased pain, The study involved gathering data from over 13,000 people across the UK in 2016.
Charity group Versus Arthritis funded the study dubbed "Cloudy with a Chance of Pain."
The researchers discovered that dry days were least likely to be painful while they found no correlation between rainfall or temperature and pain. The researchers also took into account how weather influences mood and mood in turn can influence pain, but they found that the relationship between weather and pain remained even when accounting for mood.
Carolyn Gamble, a study participant who suffers from a form of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis, said that despite following medical advice, daily pain persists for numerous people. "Knowing how the weather impacts on our pain can enable us to accept that the pain is out of our control, it is not something we have done, or could have done differently in our own self-management," she pointed out.
Meanwhile, Stephen Simpson, director of research at Versus Arthritis, claimed that the UK healthcare system is not doing enough to help those with arthritis effectively. "Supporting effective ways of self-managing pain can make all the difference for people with arthritis, helping them to get and stay in work, to be full members of the community and simply to belong," he said.
