… have their origin in reality. This week we take up one of the most persistent of all folk stories–the connection between weather changing and aches/pains in the body.

You’ve probably heard this before from your aging Aunt Matilda or antique Uncle Roy, “When it’s going to rain, my knee / hip / ankle starts to hurt. It’s the rheumatism…”

Is this a real thing? Or is it a story handed down through the ages? I’ve often wondered this, and in doing a bit of searching I found that it’s not as simple as you might thing. So… Here’s the Challenge for the week.

1. Can changes in the weather cause real joint pain?

2. Can changes in weather cause other kinds of pain in the body?

3. If so, what’s the mechanism that causes the pain? (How can this possibly be?)

I know it’s simple to do a quick search and find an answer–but I’m hoping you’ll do more than just the simplest possible query.

Instead, take a look at the evidence pro and con, and THEN tell us what you think… and WHY you think the answer is one way or the other.

In a Challenge like this, we’re testing your ability to pull together data from multiple sources and synthesize it. Can you tell us what you believe (based on your searches) and why?

Go beyond the obvious. Think to yourself–“What kind of evidence would convince me of one way or the other?”

Be sure to think about what kind of source you’re reading, and whether or not the stories you read from different sources actually make sense together.

Search on!

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Update: As you probably noticed, this week’s Challenge is slow in coming out. Normally, we have a Challenge on Wednesday and an Answer on Monday. But as I mentioned a while back, I’m doing a bit of traveling and teaching for the next several weeks. So I’m slowing this blog down by a bit to accommodate my travels. I’ll be posting a Challenge on Monday, then answering it the next week. Hope you don’t mind the slight slowdown. It will let you spend more time on these slightly more difficult Challenges! (I’ll post some pix here from time to time.)