Do you find that your lower back pain worsens as winter approaches? You’re not alone, as cold weather is something that people associate with their pain. We also blame the “wrong” mattress or shoes as a potential external factor.

How Could Cold Weather Affect Pain?

Pain is the product of a number of factors. Your own history of pain, your beliefs, and the impact pain would have on your life are just a few. Pain is a protector, so if the nervous system has reason to believe something risky is going on, it might just press the pain button. In response to feeling pain, you might find that your muscles tense and you move less, which in turn exacerbate the pain.

The Cold Itself

You can imagine that in cold weather, you might be more likely to tense those muscles and brace against the elements. When you are outside, you might also be under more physical demand, as you lug around your heavy winter coat and umbrella. Maybe you wear wellies more than you’d like to, and have to fight to pull your feet out of mud on your dog walks.

If you work from home and have felt the steady rise of energy costs, do you keep your thermostat on the low side? When you’re sitting still, you’re more likely to feel the cold, especially in your extremities. Maybe it causes you to hunch up without necessarily realising you’re doing it. Or maybe you take your laptop back to bed so you can warm up under a duvet. Although no one position is inherently bad, you won’t feel great if you sit awkwardly in bed for 8 hours straight.

A Winter Lifestyle

Another reason for heightened pain over the colder seasons is actually secondary to the weather. When it’s less enjoyable to be outside, we might become more sedentary. We drive short distances we might have walked before. The golf course is too wet to use, so we sit at home. We order a delivery to save going out. A sedentary lifestyle is associated with higher rates of osteoarthritis, upper back stiffness, and headaches.

Osteopathy for Seasonal Back Pain

Your osteopath is qualified to help with your lower back pain. If yours comes and goes with the seasons, it will probably resolve itself again in the spring. Or you could get on top of it sooner and enjoy the winter! We may even find other factors in your case that mean we can reduce or prevent its return.

Beyond the lifestyle changes mentioned above, we might find a combination of

• some areas of the back over or under working
• muscular tension, possibly due to compensation for another area
• underlying joint issues (such as early arthritis) that have caused adaptations elsewhere in the body

All of which are within our remit. A combination of techniques for the joints and muscles, combined with exercises for you to do at home may be all you need. If all you want for Christmas is a comfy back, click the link below.

Click here to make an appointment in Rutland or Leicestershire for your pain