Comments on: Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not …

By: pollyannapenguin

pollyannapenguin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:44:46 +0000

I know you live in California: that’s why I thought you might shout at me for using it as an example. ;o) Your bit sounds (and looks, from the photos on the blogs) gorgeous – much nicer than the better known touristy bits!

Yes, I think it’s a combination of just WET and the barometric pressure changes that make me fizzle. (Haven’t had a real flare for a while, thank goodness.) Certainly I fizzle away like a sparkler just before a storm, so I figure that’s a pressure change.

I’d love to see a real study done on it too – perhaps that Norwegian one was a real study, if small, but due to the rather thin reporting it’s hard to know!

Do hope you’re feeling better soon!

By: Wren

Wren — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:51:24 +0000

Shout at you? Never! )

But you know, I live in California. The nothern half, but still. The weather here is mostly dry and mild, except in the summer, when it’s dry and hot as an oven. We do usually have some rain in the winter (thank goodness!) but the sunny days wayyyy outnumber the cloudy ones. It only gets really cold in January and February. At least, it does at my house, which is about 50 miles west of Lake Tahoe, in the mountains.

And yet, when the barometric pressure changes, heralding an incoming high or low pressure area, my joints twinge, ache and often, go into full flare. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s sunny or rainy, dry or humid. The rheumy is the same. But the weather really does have an effect on me, even here in California.

I’d love to see a real study done on this phenomena. I’d be glad to participate, as it just fascinates me! (Can you tell??)

By: pollyannapenguin

pollyannapenguin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:46:06 +0000

Be nice! It wasn’t NRAS’s research, they were just reporting it. It’s only stating the bleedin’ obvious if you have RA and suffer from the problem. I’m afraid I was a total skeptic about the whole weather-related thing … until it happened to me! What I want to know is did they just get people to record how they felt and then see what the weather was doing? It would be far more fun to get shipped from Norway (where the research took place) to some dry, warm place (e.g. Barcelona, or California) and see if they felt better.

Don’t shout at me for using California as a place where you should feel fine, when you’re feeling lousy – it’s just a generalization!

By: Helen

Helen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:55:56 +0000

I’ve never actually put the effort into recording it, but I know I always feel much worse on damp days – and awful on hot, humid days. My joints puff up visibly on steamy days in the summer.

By: Wren

Wren — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:26:37 +0000

You know, to me this question — does weather affect RA pain levels in some individuals — is a no-brainer. Surely it can’t be that hard to find several hundred RA warriors who’d be willing to keep track of their pain and pain levels during weather/pressure changes for a year! Or maybe it is — I’m no scientist. Still, nearly everyone I’ve talked to with this disease says they can usually tell when a change is coming because their joints start muttering, jabbering or yelling. Silly NRAS and silly Arthritis Foundation (US). They can do better than this.

Hope your fizzle fizzles again. I just found a recipe for Black Bean Chocolate Cake. I think I might have to try it!