I currently live in NE,Ohio. We are getting slammed with snow & cold weather. I find the colder it gets, I get flare ups and just feel worse with the PSA.
My family and I are re-locating to AZ in June. In my mind I think that the dry heat is going to help with my PSA.
We visited a few months ago & by the 3rd day I was able to take walks with my family and move around without any pain in my kness. I really felt better. My flaky skin even stared to clear up.
I love to be outside so I was outside in the sun most of the time in AZ. I just seems like the UV & heat penetrated my body and helped.
Do any of you live in AZ or have any of you re-located to a better climate to help the PSA?
Here's my experience: 8 years ago I was in a bad place PsA wise, and we packed up the family (kids 4 and 8 at the time), and moved to AZ (Gilbert, specifically, SE of Phoenix. It's sort of the "family" city). We lived there for 2 years to see if it would help. For the first 6 months I felt a little better, and then went downhill again. The heat made me swell and feel WORSE, and the summer high humidity and monsoon season was killer. I had a lot harder time getting pain medication in AZ than in WA state. I was treated like a criminal, fingerprinted and DL scanned everytime I got meds, interrogated by the pharmacist (illegal) as to why I was taking pain meds. Could only get pain meds from a pain management clinic, who only wanted to dope me up. Really frustrating.
After 2 years we gave it up and moved back to WA state. In the process we lost a lot of money from moving, etc. But now we never have to think about retiring to a warmer climate... I actually feel better in the Seattle area than I did in AZ! I grew up in Wisconsin, and I can say that 4 distinct season's do NOT agree with me. I do much better with year round mildness than I do with extreme heat or cold.
Ps: forgot to add that when we moved to AZ, we got a house with a gorgeous pool and I spent half the year swimming with my kids. You'd think THAT would make me improve right? Nope. Sigh.
Pps: Medical MJ is legal here in WA, we should have state run store up and running by late spring. I haven't tried it yet, but a few people in my autoimmune disease Meetup group do, and find it very helpful. When I lived in AZ, at the time I couldn't find a place to get MMJ. It was legal, but no one could point me to a safe supply.
I live in Florida and have found that I have a very hard time at Christmas when we go to Indiana (snowy and cold) to visit family. My psoriasis goes crazy, my joints ache and I'm overly miserable. I can't wait to get back to Florida. Florida is hot and humid, so I don't have any helpful information for you on being in a hot and dry climate, but I wish you the best of luck!
There's an article in Arthritis Today written by a Rheumy who has RA. She moved to Arizona to help her RA. She gives the pros and cons of moving When I can get to a scanner I'll scan and post the article for you. I'm also thinking it would be a good place to retire or spend part of the year there.
Also the arthritis foundation website has a Predict your joint pain level based on the local weather. You just enter your zip code and it tells you on a color wheel the predicted level of joint pain.
For my area it says extreme this morning. It explains why I've been sleeping 12+ hours the past 2 days - I get extremely fatigued usually instead of having joint pain.
The wicked winters here in NE,Ohio are killing me. The Summer is rough since we get so much rain & humidity. Some will say that AZ can get humid, not like Cleveland humid. It suck. Plus our brutal winters that come off the lake front storms.
Some also complain that it is so hot in AZ in the Summer, if they ever lived in Cleveland they would not be saying that.
I have family members that moved from Cleveland to AZ in the middle of Summer and said that they would take a AZ Summer over an dirty city of Cleveland Summer any day.
Not only with my PSA will AZ be a positive move for my family, we have many more that are going to make this a good thing.
Congratulations ! Wish I could move there but my job and daughter are keeping me in Virginia. I do plan to seriously look at AZ for retirement. The Rheumy that moved there is very happy. Also, Forbes named Tucson one of the top 25 places to retire in 2014.
Good luck to you and I hope you will keep us posted on how it's affecting your PsA - would be valuable for all of us.
Frances
CHARGER73 said:
Awesome, thank U.
Regardless we are moving.
The wicked winters here in NE,Ohio are killing me. The Summer is rough since we get so much rain & humidity. Some will say that AZ can get humid, not like Cleveland humid. It suck. Plus our brutal winters that come off the lake front storms.
Some also complain that it is so hot in AZ in the Summer, if they ever lived in Cleveland they would not be saying that.
I have family members that moved from Cleveland to AZ in the middle of Summer and said that they would take a AZ Summer over an dirty city of Cleveland Summer any day.
Not only with my PSA will AZ be a positive move for my family, we have many more that are going to make this a good thing.
I'm watching this discussion with interest, reason being that living in the UK the weather is yuck alot of the time.
People have asked me lots of times whether warmer weather makes me feel better or cold/wet worse and my reply has always been 'no difference'. That was until we went on holiday in November to a small island off the coast of north west Africa where, at sea level, the climate was sunny, warm and dry. After a couple of days I felt ALOT better, general stiffness and aches eased considerably.
About five days into our holiday we took a half day trip inland, which is mountainous, and from about 500m above sea level was cool, wet and misty up in the clouds ..... and my hands started to swell and the aches and stiffness started up again so much so that I struggled to get out the car when we got back ...... and it lifted once we were back in the warmth/dry lower elevation.
Even this morning my husband mentioned it again as we are starting to look to make plans for our retirement (still years away but does need planning for financially) ..... and if being in a warm, dry climate helps me we should looks at this for retirement.
Frances, we have spent some time in AZ B 4 making our decision. The quality of life and the environment is so much healthier than here in Cleveland. My wife and I are bikers so we will be able to ride all year long.Taking rides on the Harley is our stress relief and I have to say when I have a flare up, a day riding in the sun seems to really help.
Thank god my spouse found a great career in AZ as well. I just have to look when I get there. With the PSA symptoms I am really worried about finding work in my field. Even if I was not working we would still make it finacially. It would be rough but the quality of living outweighs the money we will not be making. I woud rather be humble & happy that have more money & be stressed.
Our Harley and riding is our therapoyFrances said:
Congratulations ! Wish I could move there but my job and daughter are keeping me in Virginia. I do plan to seriously look at AZ for retirement. The Rheumy that moved there is very happy. Also, Forbes named Tucson one of the top 25 places to retire in 2014.
Good luck to you and I hope you will keep us posted on how it's affecting your PsA - would be valuable for all of us.
Frances
CHARGER73 said:
Awesome, thank U.
Regardless we are moving.
The wicked winters here in NE,Ohio are killing me. The Summer is rough since we get so much rain & humidity. Some will say that AZ can get humid, not like Cleveland humid. It suck. Plus our brutal winters that come off the lake front storms.
Some also complain that it is so hot in AZ in the Summer, if they ever lived in Cleveland they would not be saying that.
I have family members that moved from Cleveland to AZ in the middle of Summer and said that they would take a AZ Summer over an dirty city of Cleveland Summer any day.
Not only with my PSA will AZ be a positive move for my family, we have many more that are going to make this a good thing.
My wife and I used to live in AZ (it's a small mountain town in the north-central part of the state, near Sedona). While we were there, it was as if I didn't have PsA at all - no meds, even. The sunlight was GREAT for my skin, and the dry air really helped my joint. Because it's in the mountains (it's a mile high, like Denver) it didn't get so ridiculously hot there, even in the summer. We moved back to NYC years ago to be near our families, and it's pretty much been all downhill from there.
I was really excited to see your post here, because she and I have been talking a LOT about relocating. This winter has been rough as you know in the Northeast, and my PsA is in a bad place. Anyway, we have 2 little ones now so it's a major decision to take them away...
Last week we decided we are going to do it. We had a real estate agent do a run through to tell us what we have to fix up to increase the value of our home, blah blah blah. The point is, there is no guarantee that it will help, but I can say for myself it made a major difference, and keep in mind that not all of AZ is a flat desert!
I live in Northern Ohio also. My bones ache, my skin is on fire. What I do think it's nothing can be worse than this. At least the sun should help some. Good luck.
PsA is the result of an overactive immune system...and as the sun is an immune system suppressant, then climate can certainly play a role in alleviating symptoms for some people. Sunshine helps me a lot...high humidity used to be a problem, but my disease is under control at the minute, so flare ups due to humidity are currently non existent (I'm in Montreal...lots of snow and damp).
Please keep us updated on your PsA symptoms after your move to AZ. I'm extremely interested in moving there for retirement and meanwhile, vacationing there. Maybe I could have a vacation home there . . . . I'm dreaming :-) In fact, all of us should buy a condo and use it as a PsA sanctuary when we need it :-)
My coworkers keep telling me I need to move to Arizona! Unfortunately we are far from retirement age so maybe we can start vacationing there. There are a lot of Canadians here that are snow birds, head to Arizona for the winters. In fact our Neighbors left in October this past year and are still there! We have been living in the fog here on the Coast for the last week...today is the fist day I've seen the sun in a while! :-)
Loved your comment on your bike being your therapy. We rode for many years before I was diagnosed with PsA and people thought I was crazy when I would say that riding all day, even long miles for many days in a row, made me forget I hurt... but it DID! Don't know if it was the fresh air, the adrenalin, the need to be totally concentrating on the bike or what but it made a difference. Arizona is one of our favorite states and there is great riding there! Hope you love it! We live in California so I really can't complain about weather but, even here, the cold gets to me.
I thank all of you for the replies on this. I really can't think of any negatives on my family & I relocating. Even if the weather in AZ does not stop the progress of my PsA the surroundings and climate will at-least allow for me to have a more comfortable & quality of life than I would in NE,Ohio. This climate has really been hard on my PsA symptoms, especially this current winter here in Ohio.
Sandy, there is no better feeling than being on that bike with my wife on a sunny day and just riding till we need fuel. No destination in mind, we just pick a direction. There have been times though that the PsA has made me so fatigued that I did not have the energy for us to ride. Usually we put on about 6,000 miles a Summer, this past Summer we did only 3,000. I would just get to fatigued to ride.
I am in trouble when I have to get our Ultra Classic converted into a trike.
Brian,
There are A LOT of trikes In the SW thanks to older snowbirds who want to keep riding! I was going to suggest a trike conversion if it would help.
My husband is big into mountain biking and mountain unicycling. He still misses riding in AZ, it was so gorgeous! You are so right that AZ will be better than NE Ohio. Four tough seasons can do a number on your PsA.
Thanks for the link, I'm in extreme as well...big surprise...-18 with windchill, actual outside it's 10 and it just keeps snowing, high for tomorrow 5. I want to crawl into the fireplace the wood heat feels so wonderful!
Thanks again, somehow that made me feel better knowing that I'm just not looking out the window and figuring for a high pain day.
PeacenLove Always~Laurel aka onemorething
Frances said:
Hi Brian,
There's an article in Arthritis Today written by a Rheumy who has RA. She moved to Arizona to help her RA. She gives the pros and cons of moving When I can get to a scanner I'll scan and post the article for you. I'm also thinking it would be a good place to retire or spend part of the year there.
Also the arthritis foundation website has a Predict your joint pain level based on the local weather. You just enter your zip code and it tells you on a color wheel the predicted level of joint pain.
For my area it says extreme this morning. It explains why I've been sleeping 12+ hours the past 2 days - I get extremely fatigued usually instead of having joint pain.
That is awesome. Mountain biking is a very intense sport. I used to race motocross & I have total respect for a mountain biker. Many motocross racers train for endurance & agility by mountain biking.
Marietta said:
Brian, There are A LOT of trikes In the SW thanks to older snowbirds who want to keep riding! I was going to suggest a trike conversion if it would help.
My husband is big into mountain biking and mountain unicycling. He still misses riding in AZ, it was so gorgeous! You are so right that AZ will be better than NE Ohio. Four tough seasons can do a number on your PsA.