Pain
With Winter drawing in in the Northern hemisphere conversation on our pages has turned to how the cold weather might affect pain levels. This is very much the case for people with fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis.
For some winter means increased pain but for others the opposite is true.
As part of our series of pain management blogs we have decided to run a poll of our readers to see if there is any pattern. It would be great if you could take part in the poll below.
Feel free to use the comments box to add anything you think will be of interest to our readers.
Changes in barometric (although I LOVE bariatric!) pressure is like my body just asking for an ice pack and a puke pail. Summer is worst, winter second. If I could stay in our typical late August/September weather, year round, I’d be golden! My solution is window open year round with heat or air conditioning on and a fan to sleep. In the car I’m the same. Window open, heat on feet in winter, window open, air conditioning on feet in summer! I’m the most comfortable (temperature wise) when I’m in the car. Although if I had to take one over the other, I’d take cold. At least I can put clothes on to warm up my body.. in the summer I can’t take off my skin so I’m perpetually in the pool or in the air conditioning!
I’ve been told by Harlow Council to have all the windows open all the time,along with the heating on constantly.My arthritis gets affected by the draft/cold coming in via the open windows and my MS gets affected by by the heating on constantly They’ve said that having windows open all the time and the heating on constantly will solve the mould and damp problem in my bedroom,that’s been going on since 2005 !!!!!!!!!!!!
Fatigue is always in issue but in the springs and falls I usually can muscle or will my way through it.
Summer and Winter have the same kind of numbness and “fog” but winter brings the arthritic pain.
I was diagnosed with Lyme two years after I was diagnosed with MS thanks to a freaking deer tick.
Both summer and winter have an equal intensity of MS pain, but each summer and winter bring their own *kind* of physical and neurological discomfort.
Thanks to all you guys for sharing your stories. Goes a long way to not getting that “I’m the only one” feeling when you have limited contact to others who share a similar story.
I wish everyone I know could read what you have all written. Stay strong! #Hope #DIsabledNotDead
In the cold I get joint pain while in the heat I get fatigued really quickly, even though I’m in the shade doing nothing
If it is a dry cold, like with really frigid cold temps I feel really great. It makes my joints not hurt so bad. I do not like feeling cold, but as long as the air temp is cool and I can put clothes on to keep me warm I do better with dry cold. The heat (which I used to be a big sun worshiper) really drains me and makes me feel swollen and makes my aching so bad. I just can’t tolerate the heat at all. Even in the winter I have to have a fan going to sleep and a window cracked for fresh air. I use lots of blankets. I still love the sun…on a bright wintery day where there is snow on the ground…to find a place to sit and let the sun beat on my face is wonderful.
when it’s hot I have a hard time staying cool, trying to bring the body temp down so I can not shake. If it’s too hot and humid, I end up with entire body tremors where it makes it hard to walk or even stand. But even the cold messes with me. The cold makes the entire body ache, it’s like everything is on fire. with the combination of having MS and arthritis I seem to have the loosing end of a battle that I am fighting up hill.
Heat is hard on my whole body. I get so tired and the numbmess & tingling in my legs & feet is worse when I try to do anything. But the cold makes my joints hurt as if I had arthritis. Seems to be a lose lose situation for me. But I do love the spring and the fall.
Heat causes my symptoms to worsen — numbness and tingling in hands and left leg/foot. I also get mentally slow and physically fatigued. Cold weather actually makes me feel better — my lesions are in my neck and I think that’s why the temp changes affect me the way they do.
Cold makes my body hurt and shiver I don’t have issues with heat at all in fact I have a daily regimen of 4 houra of sunlight minimum when my body hurts warm sunlight immediately makes me feel better, it doesn’t help that I am always cold even if it is only 70 degrees my bones are cold
The cold makes my pain worse, the heat makes my fatigue worse, not able to win either way.
Joints swell, throb,piercing pain. Sciatic gets worse. Pain increase in joints back,neck
In the summer , I get fatigue cause of the heat !! But come fall and winter , I hurt so much more !!! Stiff ,ache everywhere but my back pain and knee pain gets sometimes unbearable with my MS !!!
Hot and humid weather doesn’t effect my MS, just my mood! I love the cold, but unfortunately, it doesn’t like me. I’m much more stiff, can hardly move, and my joints just ache terribly. Seems like caffeine and ibuprofen helps with that some.
We had some nice, hot days this summer where I was almost pain free. As soon as the cooler fall weather can with the rains, my sciatic pain returned. Thankfully, not as bad as last year, but I’m back on the meds and not happy about it.
Thank you! My sciatic pain is already horrible. All my energy is taken up with pain! I get mean in the evenings! I have a lot of other back issues-caused by stenosis, bulging disks.
I have also noticed if we have a lot of rain snow or pressure changes it gets worse. last summer was able to do things i have not been able to do for over 10 years this summee however i could barely move the diferance was this year a lot of rain last hardly any rain at all
My body signals haywire pain with bariatric changes! Rain and cold are the devils.
Barimeteric changes……ugh!!! My body-pain levels, joint swelling etc. can predict a front…and changes in weather patterns before Mr/Ms./Mrs. Weatherman/Woman gives the weather report! Anyone else?
GayleByers Barometric pressure changes trigger my migraines! Spring and fall are the worst for this.