Many people believe the weather has an impact on their pain or arthritis symptoms. This was a great review study looking at exactly that. Titled “Come rain or shine: Is weather a risk factor for musculoskeletal pain?” The authors reviewed data from 11 studies (15,315 participants), providing data on 28,010 events for seven musculoskeletal conditions.

Here’s what they found: “Pooled analyses showed no association between relative humidity, air pressure, temperature, or precipitation and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, knee pain or low back pain. The findings of our review suggest that air temperature, air humidity, barometric pressure, and precipitation do not significantly increase the risk of a new onset or flare up of musculoskeletal pain.” Gout was the only condition they found that had a relationship with changes in weather.

The conclusions made by the authors: “This review significantly contributes to the body research challenging the belief that weather will influence musculoskeletal pain or symptoms.” The key word here being ‘belief’. Beliefs play a big role in producing or reducing somatic symptoms. This is called the nocebo or placebo effect. Beliefs about weather appear to be acting as a nocebo effect to produce physical symptoms in the body. This shows us the power of belief and the brain, something many people don’t believe has an effect on us. It absolutely does and is something to look at when diagnosing and treating somatic symptoms.