"Cloudy" research suggests rainfall and sunshine may affect chronic pain

Earlier this year we told you about an innovative national study asking people with arthritis to use smartphone technology to track their daily symptoms to help scientists investigate the link between chronic pain and the weather.More than 12,000 people are now using theCloudy with a Chance of Pain app to share their everyday experiences of pain with researchers at The University of Manchester. Three and a half million pieces of data have been generated for the research team to analyse, alongside extensive weather data.The results gathered during the first six months of the study make interesting reading for anyone who has ever looked at the weather forecast and wondered‘is this going to be a bad day?’.Interesting trends in weather and pain levelsInterim data collected from people living in three cities– Leeds, Norwich and London– shows as the temperature increased from February to April, the amount of time spent in severe pain decreased. However, despite the weather getting warmer still in June, the amount of time people spent in chronic pain increased again. From April to June, the weather was also wetter and there were fewer hours of sunshine."We’re seeing interesting trends suggesting rainfall and lack of sunshine may be associated with levels of pain."Professor Will DixonProfessor Will Dixon, scientific lead for the Cloudy project, says: "These are very preliminary findings, but we’re already seeing interesting trends suggesting both r...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news