More of just a flare up of your disease than the weather causing pain...

As recently as the 2 weeks ago, I was talking with my mother and the pain she was having as a result of her rheumatoid arthritis.  While telling my husband about her discomforts he mentioned how recently a cold front had come through and that is most likely the cause of her increased pain.  Then as I was reading through Scientific Perspectives on Pseudoscience and the Paranormal I found a study conducted by Donald Redelmeir and Amos Tversky titled On the Belief that Arthritis Pain Is Related to the Weather.

            This article presents an interesting perspective called illusory correlations.   That is the idea that people associate conditions or events to conditions that exist.  Changes in arthritis pain are a perfect example, one that dates back to very early medicine.  More recent medical research show that scientifically there is no association between the weather conditions and changes in the levels of pain or inflammation that a person might have. 

            The study that was conducted by Donald Redelmeir and Amos Tversky back up the idea that people believe their arthritis is affected by the weather.  This has lead me to somewhat believe that the discomforts and inflammation that my mother experiences is more attributed to having a bad day with arthritis and not necessarily what the barometer or thermometer are saying.

           I am still not convinced fully that the weather does not affect arthritic pain as I stated above how I am not fully convinced that the weather does not play a part. But at this time I am going to research more into this and document on my own her flare ups and the weather, for my own research, as I have heard other people correlate their pain with the weather.  

                                       Kelly Smith