Thanks, Karl, interesting study. However, like so many studies that the media love to pick up, the methodology and size of the sample particularly, leave grave doubts as to accuracy of this. Probably another “study” will come out in a week or two showing exactly the opposite findings. 
Over the years, for example, I’ve read I don’t know how many of these studies that show drinking wine or coffee helps prevent heart or some other disease, while during the same period an equal number come out showing that the use causes some other drastic disease.
It is akin to the idiotic proclamation by the American Cancer Society that suggests PSA tests for men for prostate cancer are unnecessary and may cause “harms.” I, like almost every single man I or my doctor knows, will tell you if we had not been alerted to the presence of prostate cancer by the PSA, many of us would likely be dead by now.
As to osteoarthritis, I can assure you that I know damn well when a change in the barometric pressure has caused increased pain. I don’t even think about it until I feel the pain being much worse, and then I realize the weather may have changed.
And as I mentioned in the OP, I suffered extreme pain in my hands and elsewhere. When we moved here, he last thing we thought about was our arthritis until one day I noticed I could do things with my hands that I never could do before, and the pain was almost gone. I mentioned it to my wife, and she realized her pain had diminished greatly. This lasts most of the year until the monsoon season, when we suddenly realize the pain is much worse. And so it goes.
As this has occurred over a period of a couple of decades, there is no question that, in my case anyway, this correlation is true.
It is highly unlikely that this would be a myth that has lasted for centuries. Ask any person at all that has arthritis, and they will assure you this is true.
When I read about a more accurate double-blind study of a sample of several thousand people, I will be more likely to believe it.
