I was wondering if anyone suffered from what they call barometic arthritis? That when your joints ache real bad days before there are signficant changes in the weather. For instance, when a whole lot of rain is on the way my knees and ankles hurt so bad and nothings seems to help, not even the arthritis medicine. The left foot hurts real bad before it snows, it's like someone is stabbing me in the foot. If any one suffers from this please let me know.

I have had others with arthritis tell me their arthritis pain gets worse when the barometric pressure goes up or down. I know I feel it more if it is cold.
Newfie11

Thanks Newfie11, I see you leave in Nebraska, so I know you all must have been suffering through that recent snow and ice storms recently. That kind of weather would have made me suffer for days on end.:wave:

We had a reprieve for the last two days and it was almost 60. A heatwave for us.:blob_fire
Newfie11

I know that I do all the time! I am 33 and have been feeling this for about 10 years or so. I have 4 herniated disks, plus DDD in my spine along with DJD in most of my joints. Usually during cold weather my left shoulder, right elbow, left knee and ankle along with most of my back and hips bother me. I live in Michigan and it has been super cold here. I feel bad, because most of my co-workers are probally thinking I have a bad attitude half the time, but they don't understand the pain I am in all the time. Like today, I have already taken 2 darvocets and 4 motrin this morning and am not getting much reprieve from it. My doctor has mentioned sending me to a pain management specialist, but I am kind of leary of going. So I know what you mean.

Lorraine

Hi Rayefaye,

Yup, those dips in barometric pressure will do it every time.

An engineer w/arthritis has devised a portable "barometric chamber" for home use, to provide drug-free relief from this type of arthritic pain. Supposedly. Haven't tried it myself, but the name of the device is the Rejuvenator.

Scott J. Zashin, M.D. did a placebo-controlled research study using the Rejuvenator with a mixed group of patients, RA, OA, & fibro. His finding was that 70% of the participants benefitted from using the device, even after only a couple of sessions.

Best wishes.

Hi,

Yes, it happens to me all the time as well. I know I have osteoarthritis in several areas plus lupus. The worst for me are those low pressure systems. THough sometimes when it's really humid out (even in summer on sunny days), some of my joints get stiff, particularly my hands.

Thanks for info on the Rejuventor, I'll have to check it out. My doctor suggested moving to Arizonia where they don't have much rain or low pressure systems moving in all the time. I feel for you there in Michigan because where ya'll had snow it's been nothing but rain here in NC this fall and winter. It seems like I get over one batch of rain coming throught and by the time my knees and ankles get to feeling better here comes some more.

I checked into the Rejuvenator, it sounds wonderful, but is out of my budget. I am going to have to see if maybe there are any spas that have it. Today my pain is getting worse, so I just made appt to see my doctor and they were able to fit me in this afternoon. On top of checking out my joints, I am going to have them check out my thyroid. I have heard that thyroid problems can cause joint pain and there is a history of thyroid problems in my family.
I am so sick of Michigan weather!!! I want to move down south somewhere, but hate to leave my family! We are all pretty close. Its just me and my boyfriend, but we are both close with our families.

Hope everyone is having a good day!!
Later Rain:wave:

I checked into the Rejuvenator, it sounds wonderful, but is out of my budget. I am going to have to see if maybe there are any spas that have it. ... I have heard that thyroid problems can cause joint pain and there is a history of thyroid problems in my family.

Hi Rainie,

I've got the same prob w/that device: $$$. Your idea to ck out spas is great! I myself wondered whether I could get a group of people together to chip in ... but of course that has its downsides, people coming to someone's house everyday ... would all have to be pretty close friends, IMO.

I have Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis & am hypothyroid -- well, I'm treated now. Suffered with it for decades, while my brother got taken seriously on his first trip to the doc. Makes me mad, what MDs attribute to "being female." Anyway, I DO find that keeping my level of active free thyroid hormone in the mid range, is very impt to reducing my arthritis pain. I suffer from a hodge podge of indeterminate (most but not all criteria met) lupus/MCTD, RA, plus OA & fibro.

I could not get taken seriously on thyroid issues by my doc, who only did the TSH test, where my labs would come back "high normal." My doc used the old ranges, as do most of the docs & labs in the USA, rather than the current (2002) recommendations for TSH established by the American Assoc. of Clinical Endocrinologists. By the newer standard, I was hypoT, and had been for a long, long time.

What finally got my doc's attention was when I went to a Health Check USA lab & self-ordered by own thyroid profile package. Tests my doc refused to order. Well, my thyroid antibodies demonstrated I had Hashi's, and the decimated free T3 & free T4 levels showed just how starved my body was for thyroid hormone. Those free thyroid hormone levels are what really count. Not the totals, not the indexed, not the reflex levels. Free thyroid hormone is what does the work in your body.

My internal med doc did decide, on the basis of my low levels of free hormone, to do a 6 week trial of low-dose thyroid hormone. I've been on thyroid meds for 2 1/2 yrs. now. I won't say that this is the miracle that completely eliminated all of my arthritis, however -- it's been an important factor in modulating the severity. The most important change is, I'm no longer crippled & housebound in cold weather, which really used to flare things up -- and reasonably so, as a normal body produces much more free T3 when exposed to cold, to help stoke the furnace. But a thyroid hormone deficient body diverts available hormone to critical functions like heart & brain, with less for muscles & joints.

IME, many people have to pointedly ask their docs for the thyroid free hormone level tests, or self-order them, in order to ensure thyroid function isn't a factor in their suffering. Docs have been brainwashed to believe that TSH tells the whole story; but since TSH is actually a pituitary hormone, that particular test is replete with assumptions & potential pitfalls in interpretation.

Best wishes.

Hi Rainie73:wave: I can understand your dilema about leave behind your family because I couldn't leave mine and move over to Arizonia just to be a little more pain free. Because I also suffer from a nerve condition called Rsd which leaves me in alot of pain too and I also suffer from cervical dsytonia, severe muscle spasms in the neck. So I rely on my husband and family because my husband works at night and I'm disabled and can't defend myself. I live in an apt. in the country owned by my father and I always know that I safe here at night alone. Hi Elmher:wave: Thanks for the thyroid info never heard about this prospect before but it's worth checking out and I have a very wonderful and understanding doctor whom I can discuss this with. So thanks.