How are the spine and its discs designed ?

The vertebras are the bony building blocks of the spine.Between each of the largest parts (bodies) of the vertebrae are the discs. 

Ligaments are situated around the spine and discs. 

The spine has seven vertebrae in the neck (cervical vertebrae), 12 vertebrae in the mid-back (thoracic vertebrae) , and five vertebrae in the low back (lumbar vertebrae). 

In addition, in the mid-buttock, beneath the fifth lumbar vertebra, is the sacrum, followed by the tailbone (coccyx)

The idea that weather influences aches and pains has been around since ancient Greece.And most of us probably have that relative who swears their knee always knows when there's a storm comin.

But while studies show that a lot of people believe this is true, the actual evidence to back it up is mixed at best.

In 1995, scientists surveyed 558 chronic pain patients living in four cities across the US

and most of them reported that changes in the weather affected their pain.

That's only what the patients thought was happening though,

the researchers didn't actually find a correlation.

A 2007 study looked at 200 people with knee pain from osteoarthritis where the cartilage that cushions the bones is worn away

and the data they collected over three months did suggest a link between some weather changes and reported pain.

People's pain went up a smidge with increasing atmospheric pressure and decreasing temperature.

This doesn't quite fit the my knee can predict the rain idea though,

higher atmospheric pressure usually means nice weather on the way not storms.

This is because when atmospheric pressure is low,

air molecules get pushed from nearby higher pressure regions into the low-pressure one,

this makes wind and usually brings along the ingredients for rain.

When air pressure is high though, things tend to stay nice and stable.

That being said changes in air pressure can affect our bodies.

For example, a difference in air pressure between the outside and those little hollow bits in your skull called sinuses

can lead to a pretty bad headache.

So there's a chance that the nerve endings in the uncushioned bones of osteoarthritis patients

could respond to pressure changes and ache, too.

But larger and more recent studies have had more negative results.

Like a 1997 review of 16 studies on joint pain and weather couldn't conclude anything for sure

and one study from 2016 looked at 345 osteoarthritis patients on Australia for three months

who reported their pain online when it got worse.

The researchers took temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and precipitation data in the places where the patients lived.

Both at the times they reported pain and when they didn't as a control,

and overall they couldn't find any connection between changes in the weather and people's pain.

A similar study looking at lower back pain in 981 Australian participants couldn't find any link to weather either

and they looked at factors like wind speed and direction, too

some pain triggers like stress and weight gain are absolutely backed up by science

but weather, not so much at least as far as we know right now.

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