Back ache in cool, damp weather

Does your back tend to get achy in the cooler, damper weather? That's not an old wives' tale. Most people with back problems, especially if they have spinal arthritis, generally do.

There is a reason for that. When the weather changes from a nice dry day to a wet day (especially if it's cooler too), the barometric pressure drops. Your joint capsule (the sac of fluid that bathes your joint) expands. It's like when a helium balloon climbs in the sky, it expands in response to less atmospheric pressure around it and eventually blows up.

So your joint capsule expands the same way. The sac itself has a lot of pain fibers in it. When it stretches, it fires off the pain fibers and you feel the pain as aching.