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Health Check: How the weather influences pain

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A senior woman with a cane looking out of a window

2019/10/30 GMT

How the weather influences pain

BBC World Service - Health Check, How the weather influences pain

Cloudy with a chance of pain: how humidity makes arthritic joints hurt more

Scientific proof of what patients have believed for years – that joints hurt more in damp weather; transformative clean water in Kenya; how monks are fighting the flab in Thailand

Up to three quarters of people say that painful conditions like arthritis get worse when the weather is turning damp and cold. But up until now it’s been hard to prove they are right. A new study from Manchester in the UK involved people tracking people’s daily pain using an app. This information was linked with local weather conditions and high humidity was found to increase pain levels the most. 

Many people around the world are lucky enough to be able to turn on the tap and get a clean, safe supply of water. In Kisumu in Kenya special community taps are being installed to clean up the water. They inject just enough chlorine solution to kill harmful microbes – but not enough to spoil the taste. Similar trials in Bangladesh cut the number of cases of diarrhoea in young children by nearly a quarter. 

Monks in Thailand have become more at risk of developing diabetes, thanks to the tasty religious offerings they are given to eat. News that nearly half the monks monitored were obese, prompted a Health Charter – interventions which help the monks to watch what they eat and do gentle exercise.

(Photo: A senior woman with a cane looking out of a window. Credit: PeopleImages/Getty Images)

Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond

Producer: Paula McGrath

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