Keeping the Media Honest: Do Recent Headlines about Weather and Joint Pain Really Stand up?

A recent study published in the journal Pain Medicine regarding the connection between back pain and the weather has generated headlines in many media outlets.  CTV posted an article on January 11, 2017 that was fairly typical of these recent headlines.  It was titled “Achy joints? Don’t blame the weather, researchers say.”  This would appear to indicate that research has now disproved the theory that weather can affect your joints.  But is that really the case?  The answer is no, for a variety of reasons.  The first of these is that the media takes a giant leap from the conclusions of the study in order to generate an eye-popping headline.  The study itself only dealt with acute low back pain, not joint pain in general as the headline suggests.  Acute low back pain is often accompanied by significant inflammation and muscle spasm.  Most patients who have suffered this type of pain can attest to its severity.  Weather is certainly unlikely to affect this type of pain.  However, the study did not include patients with the type of long-standing chronic pain or degenerative changes that would be much more likely to be affected by subtle changes in the environment.  Our clinical experience certainly indicates that cold weather and decreases in barometric pressure can cause pain in patients with degenerative joint disease.  Not only can pain be aggravated, but we have seen patients who actually experience visible swelling as the barometer drops.  This is certainly not imagined!  In the end, this study, while useful, does not close the book on weather and joint pain.  The bigger takeaway, however, has to do with the way the media reports results of health research.  Bottom line: Read the headlines with care!

1.  Beilken, K. et al. (2016) Acute Low Back Pain? Don’t Blame the Weather: A Case-Crossover Study.  Pain Medicine.