With the winter blast that has recently come up from the Antarctic, pre-winter may I remind you, temperature levels have dropped massively here in the Southern Highlands, Bowral. We’re use to the cold down here, around 6 months out of the year you’ll be needing winter gear when going outside. It doesn’t stop us though, layers is a concept that every Southern Highlander is familiar with. And with that, I begin my weekly blog. I have been inspired to write about the effects of weather on our pain response. “My joints don’t like the cold”, this is a phrase you are very likely to have heard from someone, and it doesn’t have to be an elderly person. But why?

There is a combination of factors with regards to seasonal changes in weather that affect our pain response.

1) temperature: apart from increases in pressure in joints, we also see that the temperature receptors in the the skin called nociceptors can get confused at times, and instead of messages of cold or hot being sent to the brain, it signals pain. We see this in patients who have chronic conditions such as CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome) or post-operatively. With every 10 degree drop in temperature, there is an incremental increase in arthritic pain (2007, The Arthritis Foundation).

2) humidity: when it is humid, we sweat and without adequate water intake we are more likely to dehydrate. Dehydration makes for “thicker blood” and increases in blood pressure, causing increases in pressure in joints which are largely made up of fluid = pain

3) atmospheric pressure: varies at different altitudes, and with that comes pressure changes in the air and our joints, and causes expansion and contraction of tendons, scar tissue and muscles = pain.

So you can see that any one of these factors can affect how we experience, more particularly, chronic conditions such as arthritis.

How does physiotherapy help?

Most of what a physiotherapist can offer is with regards to managing your symptoms when they flare up and also prevent secondary conditions caused by the flare-up. For example, I have a patient who has arthritic knee pain, the change in the weather has caused a flare-up of their symptoms reducing their ability to walk/mobilise. As a result, they spend most of the time in bed. As they are elderly, this increases their risk of developing respiratory distress and further complications that can result in hospitalisation. By seeing a physic to talk about the importance of mobilising, they can provide maintenance knee exercises to stop the knee from stiffening, some breathing work to avoid lung collapse, reassurance that movement is good and important, and manual therapy to help reduce stiffening of joints and muscle wastage.

If you have questions relating to our post this week please reach out to us via our social media platforms. I plan on buying an extra pair of gloves for this Winter season so I can keep up my jogging regime despite the cold weather.

Sam and Andy