While cold weather doesn't cause arthritis, it can exacerbate aches and pains. According to the Arthritis Foundation, frigid temperatures can heighten pain sensitivity, slow blood circulation and cause muscle spasms.
Winter weather is often to blame for arthritis pain. While cold weather does not cause arthritis, it can exacerbate it. This pain occurs because your body is more sensitive to pain when it gets cold. The cold slows blood circulation and can cause muscle spasms, according to the Arthritis Foundation.
Just as the effects of weather vary, the best climate may not be the same for all people. But based on research, it appears that for most people with arthritis, a warmer, drier climate may be optimal, such as that in parts of Texas, Arizona, Nevada and the Eastern Sierra region of California.
During the winter months, it's especially important to get enough vitamin D. Patients with rheumatoid or other inflammatory arthritis show more severe pain if their vitamin D levels drop.
For many people, arthritis symptoms seem to get worse in the summer months, and there's a good reason for that.
This study showed that cold, damp conditions lead to elevated pain levels in people with arthritis, while dry, hot conditions tend to cause less discomfort. However, there isn't clear evidence explaining why humidity worsens arthritic pain.
If your joints don't like the winter chill, the best antidote is to stay warm. Layer up with hats, gloves and scarves, and use an electric heating pad or an electric blanket to keep yourself warm while you're napping. You might even consider soaking in a hot bath to help loosen stiff joints. Get moving.
NSAIDs are the most effective oral medicines for OA. They include ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) naproxen (Aleve) and diclofenac (Voltaren, others). All work by blocking enzymes that cause pain and swelling.
People with rheumatoid arthritis typically have several permanently inflamed joints. The inflammation inside the body can lead to general physical weakness, drowsiness and exhaustion. This feeling of extreme tiredness is also called "fatigue." Some people find this to be the worst symptom of the disease.
The most common triggers of an OA flare are overdoing an activity or trauma to the joint. Other triggers can include bone spurs, stress, repetitive motions, cold weather, a change in barometric pressure, an infection or weight gain. Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory disease that affects the skin and joints.
Pain from arthritis can be constant or it may come and go. It may occur when at rest or while moving. Pain may be in one part of the body or in many different parts. Some types of arthritis cause the skin over the affected joint to become red and swollen, feeling warm to the touch.
While some daily UV exposure can be helpful for people with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, formal tanning does more harm than good for everyone, and especially for people prone to sun sensitivity.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that happens when the tissues that cushion the ends of the bones within the joints break down over time. These changes usually develop slowly and worsen gradually, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling.
Lying down can cause inflammatory chemicals to pool in the fluid that cushions your joints, which makes them stiffen up. And your perception of pain may be heightened during the nighttime because you're not distracted by anything else.
When you warm up a sore joint or tired muscle, your blood vessels get bigger. This allows more blood, oxygen, and nutrients to be delivered to the injured tissues. Better circulation means more relaxation for those stiff muscles and joints. Stay away from heat if you have an acute injury or are having a flare.
The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis causes cartilage — the hard, slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones where they form a joint — to break down.
Plus, some forms of arthritis itself, and its treatment, can lead to an increase in body fat and loss of lean muscle mass, explains John Davis, III, MD, rheumatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Obesity isn't just needing to eat less and lose a few pounds. It's a chronic, treatable disease.
No blood test can definitively prove or rule out a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, but several tests can show indications of the condition. Some of the main blood tests used include: erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) – which can help assess levels of inflammation in the body.
Glucosamine and chondroitin are two of the most commonly used supplements for arthritis. They're components of cartilage—the substance that cushions the joints. Research on these supplements has been mixed, in part because studies have used varying designs and supplement types.
Research note: Preliminary studies suggest a type of vitamin B3 called niacinamide may improve osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms and reduce the need for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) by suppressing inflammation.
Most forms of arthritis are thought to be caused by a fault in the immune system that causes the body to attack its own tissues in the joints. This may be inherited genetically. Other forms of arthritis can be caused by problems with the immune system or by a metabolic condition, such as gout.
Temperature plays a large role in the pain relief cycle, thus the use of air conditioning can in fact help elevate some of the symptoms of arthritis.
Keep your joints warm
'Keeping joints warm may help alleviate pain as warmth relaxes muscles and reduces stiffness,' says Dr McClymont. Warm showers and baths, heating pads, electric blankets and covering joints with gloves or even wrapping hands around hot drinks can all help with keeping your pain at bay in winter.
Cold weather causes decreased circulation, which can cause muscles and tendons to contract, increasing the stiffness as joints move. It is also worth noting that many people stay inside more and are not as active as they may have been in the warmer months.