Re: Joint Pain and the Weather

Dear Jim,

  Believe it or not, there is no scientific explanation for the phenomenon

of joint pain due to damp, rain, etc.

In fact, you will definitely want to look up the New York Times from Wednesday,

April 3rd 1996.  On page B9 there is a lengthy article describing the work

of Dr. Amos Tversky, a Stanford University psychologist.  He has done 

a study on the relationship between arthritis pain and the weather, and he

found no effect.  He proposes that the common idea that there is a link is 

a result of the human mind's tendency to look for patterns in the world.

  If you do some research, you will find that the public holds many views about

the body and its functions that are not shared by the medical community.



For example, there is no scientific evidence that sugar makes children

hyperactive, or that getting cold and wet causes you to catch a cold or flu.

I myself was quite surprised when the endocrinologists who gave us lectures

in my second year of medical school stated that anabolic steroids have

no effect on muscle growth!!



Now, whether a person continues to hold such beliefs and think the scientists just

haven't looked hard enough or done the right experiments, or whether they

decide that in fact the scientists are right, is a very tricky subject and I'm

certainly not going to tell you what you should think.  But in any case,

the simple answer to your question is, "No one knows."



Joe Simpson