Sorry. Post got away from me. Damn Tapatalk interface. I’ll try again when I’m at my computer.
Sorry it took a while.
When I lived in Texas, I was pretty good at predicting the weather. I had a friend who was from another state, he looked at the sky, and said it looked like rain. Nope, I told him, it’s not going to rain today. Later, the clouds cleared up, and the day finished bright and sunny.
A few days later, I told him we wouldn’t be going out to the park because it looked like it was going to rain. He was surprised because it looked like a beautiful day. An hour later, a major storm moved in and poured for several hours straight.
This wasn’t because I was psychic. It wasn’t because I was great at predicting the weather. This superpower was pretty much shared by everyone who lived in Texas – a survival strategy. Get it wrong, and you’d be wearing shorts and a t-shirt while the sky opened up worse than it did for Noah. Or, you’d be bundled up when the thermometer decided to top 100 degrees.
I was probably picking up some environmental queues, but I couldn’t tell you what they were. I suspect that joint aches may be something similar. As I found out recently, you get old enough, and your joints ache no matter what the weather.
I suspect that people whose joint pain predicts the weather may simply be picking up environmental cues they can’t point out. Maybe if they get anxious enough because a major storm approaching, they start to notice their aches and pains.
I’m not so sure whether doctors believe them, or they’re just trying to dispose of troublesome patients.
Mr. Gravis, you come here every other day and complain about your aches and pains. You know what would be good for that? Moving to Arizona.
Here’s money for the bus ticket. Oh no. It’s on me. My pleasure. Oh, and here’s a number of an excellent doctor over there. Oh, yes he’s great doctor! Ask him, and he’ll tell you that himself. He was in my class at medical school and always got better grades than I did. I know that because he was always telling me about how much better he was doing than me. I’m sure he’ll be simply thrilled to have you as a patient a listen to you yammer on all day!
I’ve been waiting for you to get back and finish the post.
I have a dodgy left ankle, hurt it playing (Aussie Rules) football 20 years ago and now it doesn’t like cold weather.
I’ve never bothered to analyse the pattern, but 99% of the time it’s pain free. The other 1% I wake up in the morning and can’t bend it. Hurts like hell, I need to walk with my left foot pointing out to my left so the ankle doesn’t actually do what it’s supposed to do, and bend.
Takes about 5-10 minutes to warm up before I can walk normally again. This usually only happens in winter.
So, it’s certainly not going to help me in predicting the weather, it’s more like copping a consequence of it.
I’ve always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the pressure of fluid in the joints shifted with changes in barometric pressure.
Nothing to do with joint aches, but my wife is an excellent forecasting tool.
Occasionally she gets bouts of multiple sneezes, lasting for several minutes. Whenever this happens we will have measurable precipitation within 24 hours, usually 12.
Yes, I know what confirmation bias is. I am rigorously scientific in my observations, there is no confirmation bias.
No, you assumed correctly. This is why some people feel pain or discomfort in joints at the onset of weather changes involving pressure changes. Some of them go on to be weather “predictors” !
I don’t think you’d be so certain about that if you’d read Cecil’s column.
Powers &8^]
My physician ][ul]
[/ul]
[/LIST]explained to me that when the barometric pressure drops the bursas
swell, and injured joints are typically less well encapsulated. I can tell that the weather is going to change because the elbow I broke in 1965 hurts.