Joint pain and weather. A critical review of the literature.

Many people believe that weather conditions can influence joint pain, but science offers no proof. If the phenomenon were real, cause-and-effect mechanisms might provide clues that would aid joint pain treatment. Literature on the subject is sparse, conflicting, and vulnerable to bias, and further physiologic investigations are not likely to produce useful information. However, for patients who believe that weather can influence their pain, the causes may be unknown, but the effect is real.