Disease wet wind or the relationship between joint pain and weather forecasts
Is it true that the weather can exacerbate physical pain? This is one of the longest-running disputes in medicine, says The Wall Street Journal.
Hippocrates observed that some of the disease - seasonal, and in China rheumatic disease called wet wind, writes journalist Melinda Beck. We supplement that in the UK it is known as a disease sodden feet.
But when modern scientists have attempted to identify the relationship between weather and painful symptoms, the results were mixed. Psychologist Amos Tversky in the mid-1990s concluded: Beliefs about people pain from arthritis and weather, perhaps, tell us more about the work of the mind than on the functioning of the body.
However, other studies say: changes in temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure have some connection with the strengthening of the pain associated with arthritis and osteoarthritis, as well as headache, toothache, pain in the jaw, in the scars, lower spine, pelvis, exacerbation of fibromyalgia, trigeminal neuralgia, gout and phantom limb syndrome.
According to one of the leading hypotheses, reducing the atmospheric pressure, which is often preceded by a storm, the pressure changes inside the joints - the newspaper said. Robert Jamison (Harvard Medical School) compares the joint with a balloon that is inflated by a reduction of ambient pressure and presses on the nerve endings.
For its part, the rheumatologist Peshens White points out that not all patients with arthritis experience pain, dependent on the weather. It is much more common in people with effusion (abnormal accumulation of fluid in the joint or around it).
Be that as it may, orthopedists, rheumatologists, neurologists and even fitness trainers say their customers are increasingly complaining of pain when the weather gets colder or approaching storm.
On Web sites, Weather Channel and AccuWeather there are signs that reflect the likelihood of pain syndromes, depending on weather conditions - for example, the index of arthritis.
38-year-old Bill Bolderaz from Ohio says, his pain from rheumatoid arthritis last year predicted a tornado that failed to anticipate the weather forecasters.
Judging by some studies, in cold weather seems to be increasing the risk of strokes, heart attacks and sudden death from heart failure - the newspaper writes. According to scientists, the reason is that the blood becomes thicker, and the vessels are narrowed.
Growth humidity may provoke hardening and swelling of the joints. People with chronic inflammation of the weather swings cause irritation of nerve endings.
But there is the weather, which relieves pain: for example, the warm wind from the high-pressure specific to the west of Canada, facilitate neuropathic pain.
The paper gives some practical advice for those who want to weaken meteodependent pain.
If the predicted storm or cold snap in advance take a pain killer or anti-inflammatory. Do not neglect warm clothing, avoid drafts, lead an active lifestyle. Use a dehumidifier to prevent a sharp rise in humidity.
in the wake of inopressa.ru
