05/07/2022
5 Ways Rain Can Increase Pain and What You Can Do to Alleviate It This Season
1) Reduced Activity
When it rains, you’re much less likely to go out for that jog or other physical activity. When you do this, you reduce the blood flow to important joints, muscles, and tissues, robbing them of important nutrients needed to eradicate toxins and keep your body functioning optionally. As you can see, while this correlation between rain and pain may not be direct, it’s no less impactful.
In order to combat this, remain active through all of the rainfall. Swap the seawall for the indoor track, hit the gym, and when the far and between sunny days do arrive, take full advantage of them by getting outdoors to return to the activities that keep your body moving and blood flowing.
2) Impact on Thyroid
Rain clouds equate a drop in temperature as the sun is not allowed to shine through and heat the body and home alike. This drop in temperature can increase your body’s need for the thyroid hormone. Your thyroid gland secretes the hormones necessary to control metabolism, which is your body’s means of converting food into fuel. Therefore, any disruption in the way you burn energy can affect how your muscles feel, as fluids may build in your joints as your metabolism slows, which can result in swelling that leads to pain.
Show some additional support for your thyroid function (and boost your metabolism) through the rainy season, via the following:
-Reduce stress
-Get enough sleep
-Keep active (as per item #1)
-Adopt a diet rich in essential vitamins and minerals that at include selenium, iodine, zinc, thiamine, B12, and vitamin D (unless your physician dictates otherwise)
-Eliminate refined sugars and carbohydrates from your diet
-Reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption
-Reduce or eliminate caffeine (coffee, cola, etc.)
-Stay hydrated
-Eat frequent small meals through the day.
3)Eating More and the Decreased Immune Function
Do you know what gives us all the munchies? No, it’s not what you think. For a variety of reasons, rain makes us eat more. Eating provides comfort from the nasty weather outside of our windows while easing boredom. In addition, the loss of natural light impacts our moods and calls upon the desire to elevate them with bad carbohydrates. In the end, eating more typically results in weight gain. Since much of the human immune system surrounds the gastrointestinal tract, overeating can cause inflammation and activate chemicals in the body that result in low levels of key nutrients such as Vitamin D, which is associated with immune system dysfunction. Given that it is well known that the immune system plays a critical role in the development and maintenance of many chronic pain conditions, every step must be made to support our immune systems through rainy season, which includes redefining rainy day diets.
4) SAD and in Pain
By now you know that seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which can rear it’s head in the autumn rainy season, is a very real thing. Studies show a correlation between SAD and self-reporting of not just chronic fatigue, but pain, including myofascial face pain. In addition, there is a proven link between anxiety and depression (both symptoms of SAD) and chronic back pain.
If you are suffering from SAD and the chronic pain that can come along with it, we encourage you to consider the following:
*Keep active
*Adopt a diet rich in essential vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin D which is limited with a loss of natural sunlight
*Eliminate refined sugars and carbohydrates from your diet
*Reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption
*Reduce or eliminate caffeine (coffee, cola, etc.)
5) An Overall Lack of Attention to Physical Health
The rainy season can have you sideline attention to your physical health beyond the items addressed above. We get into the habit of letting our overall health and wellness slide which contributes to the rise of pain from past injuries.
The next best step you can take to abating rainy weather pain, is to work with a physiotherapist. By making physiotherapy a part of your health and wellness regime through the physical fitness you’ll have a much better shot at mitigating the pain in your legs, back, neck, and shoulders alike.
By visiting a physiotherapist near you can effectively eradicate seasonal pain.
