Ask a physio: Can you really feel the weather in your joints?

Many people know someone who can forecast the weather with a knee. Sean Overin’s grandmother could: a twinge in her hip on a clear afternoon would prompt her to predict rain by morning, and she was often right. If the first grey, wet stretch of fall has left you stiffer and achier than usual, you are in good company. Overin begins with reassurance: cold and damp weather do not harm your joints.

That may be hard to believe when your hands feel like rusted hinges on a wet morning. Research on weather and pain remains inconclusive, but many people with migraines or osteoarthritis say cold, damp days are their worst, year after year. They are not imagining the pain. Mood can also follow a seasonal pattern: as fall light fades, some people predictably feel flatter, a pattern known as seasonal affective disorder. There is no need to apologize for that dip. Pain appears to follow a similar rhythm. The ache is real; the damage is not.

Part of the effect may be direct. When a storm moves in, barometric pressure — the weight of the air pressing on us — drops. Researchers suspect the small shift may allow sensitive tissues to swell slightly, while cold may make nociceptors, the nerve endings that send danger signals to the brain, quicker to fire. These effects appear modest and are difficult to pin down.

For many people, a larger factor is simpler: their habits change with the weather. The after-dinner walk becomes time on the couch. Cold muscles are stiffer and a little more tender, like modelling clay that is harder to work when cold than when warm. Moving less can leave joints creakier and everyday tasks more effortful. Darker mornings and less consistent sleep can also make people notice aches more. None of this means there is damage; it is the body responding as it cools down and slows down when it moves less.

Overin recommends staying active through the season instead of hunkering down until spring. A daily walk, bundled up, on dyke trails or around the block counts. Staying active year-round helps guard against injury, low mood and common illnesses. Warmth can help too, less as treatment than as a way to make movement easier: a hot shower or heating pad can ease the first stiff movements. Start gently before picking up the pace, and dress for the weather so cold is not a reason to stay inside.

He also advises against the idea that winter is when the body falls apart. That story can keep people on the couch, and inactivity reliably makes stiffness worse. On the greyest, achiest mornings, decide to take the walk before the day does, then follow the plan rather than the feeling. Your grandmother’s knee may have been telling her something, but feeling the weather is not the same as being harmed by it. The aim is to keep moving gently through the grey instead of waiting for it to pass. Warm up, bundle up and keep moving; spring will look after itself.

Overin is a registered physiotherapist who coordinates the Chronic Pain Program at Tall Tree Health, which has a clinic in Port Coquitlam. The column is general information and is not a substitute for individual medical advice.