Lifestyle Arthritis diary Whatever the weather Does your arthritis feel different depending on the weather? Wulian Worricker is not sure – but he’s willing to find out inter is long gone, spring is doing its thing, and we all feel much better for it. True? Well, possibly. You don’t have to dig very deep online to find any number of articles linking better weather with better health. As ever, some of them base their findings on science, others less so, but most of us know we simply feel that bit better when there’s some warm sunshine on our face. I’ve lost count of the number of people who, knowing that I have arthritis, make a kindly observation about the weather conditions and the amount of discomfort I must be experiencing as a result of them. In truth, because mine is psoriatic arthritis, I’ve never noticed rain, sun, heat or cold having any bearing on my state of health. This isn’t true with my psoriasis though. I barely suffer with it at all these days, but in my youth when it was worse and I worried about it more (which probably made it worse still), there was no doubt that an angry patch of psoriasis was noticeably tamed by exposure to the sun. A quick glance at the Psoriasis Association website confirms how UVA and UVB rays can help but, as so often with complex conditions, it’s not true for everyone. Giving it a go The reason I’m ploughing this particular furrow is that I’ve just come across a new area of research, in which we’re all encouraged to take part. It’s called ‘Cloudy with a chance of pain’, which, I think you have to agree, is a smart title. The venture is led by Dr Will Dixon, who’s a scientist and a hospital doctor, and he explains that he and his team are trying to answer that age-old question – is there a provable connection between joint pain and weather conditions? Obviously the more people who take part – and the website insists it only takes 10 minutes to register, then you can supply data via your smartphone – the more persuasive the conclusions will be. I know from my day job that journalists are more likely to put scepticism to one side if a scientific study is made up of thousands of participants rather than a couple of hundred. And while anecdotal evidence can be moving, persuasive, compelling, you name it...it doesn’t carry the clout that a year-long detailed study can. If a clear link is established, I suppose the only difficulty is that we can’t all up-sticks and move to Andalucia, but knowing more about the fluctuating symptoms of different forms of arthritis can’t be a bad thing. And it might get us a few headlines, which is something we struggle to do. After all, if the story that emerges is all about the weather, name me a Brit who won’t want to talk about it. n Click here to take part in the study.