Recently published study works to confirm weather’s effect on chronic pain

Stormy weather can be tough to navigate in general. It also means a tough time for chronic pain sufferers. Unfortunately, quantifying it in a scientific sense has never really been possible.

As such, it's been difficult for doctors and researchers to find out why this occurs. Until now. The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, along side the npj Digital Medicine journal published a study in late October.

They found that nasty weather (as expected) tends to increase chronic pain issues. The main contributing factors being lower barometric pressure along with higher relative humidity. Relative humidity was considered to be the biggest contributing factor.

Exactly why this occurs is still unknown. However, having scientific evidence to confirm this could lead to more research as to why it happens, and what could be done to mitigate it.

While the study itself may seem redundant, it was an important step in how scientific data is collected. The ease and reach of a cell phone app allows for much faster and more efficient data processing. This will likely yield better AND faster results for other problems in the future.

-Luke