People have had strange ways of curing illnesses for a long time. And in the days before modern medicine, one of the most common ways that people treated chronic disease was sending people to a new location. The hope was that a new environment would be able to cure the illness that someone was suffering.For instance, Russian writer Anton Chekhov once checked into a resort in southern Russia in the hope that the dry air and a steady diet of fermented mare’s milk would cure his tuberculosis. After two weeks of drinking alcoholic milk, he gained twelve pounds but wasn’t cured.

But many people hope that moving to a new environment can help cure their fibromyalgia. So can moving to a new city really help your fibro symptoms?

Environment and fibro symptoms

There’s not a lot of good studies about the role that the environment can play in causing fibro flare-ups. Though a lot of fibromyalgia sufferers will swear that changes in the weather can cause their fibromyalgia symptoms to get worse. Some people even say that they can predict if it’s going to rain by their fibromyalgia pain.

And some studies have concluded there is a scientific basis for this claim. The low-pressure fronts that are associated with rains and storms are known to have at least some effect on certain people with arthritis. So it stands to reason that fibromyalgia joint pain might respond in the same way.

But here’s the thing, many studies have concluded that there is no link between fibromyalgia and environmental triggers. A Dutch study in 2001 concluded that there is no measurable difference between the amount of pain fibro sufferers feel during the winter months than the summer months. They concluded that any additional pain people feel during cold weather is actually the result of people feeling like their symptoms should be worse.

That may sound ridiculous to you. Especially if you’re one of those people who definitely feels like your symptoms are worse during cold weather. And the issue is far from decided. Especially when other studies contradict that earlier one.

Can moving to a new city help your fibro symptoms?

So can moving to a new city help your fibromyalgia symptoms? It’s tough to say. Some evidence says that it will. Other evidence suggests that it won’t.

Anecdotally, some people have reported feeling better after moving south. And if fibromyalgia symptoms do respond to cold or wet weather, then it makes sense that a drier and warmer climate would help. In that case, moving to a new city with a different climate would help your symptoms.

But until science understands more about fibromyalgia and the way it responds to the environment, there’s really no way to know for sure. However, if something works for your fibro symptoms, then it works. And if you feel like your fibro symptoms are better in one place than another, then they probably are.

If you want to move to a new city because it helps your fibro symptoms then why not do it? At the same time, don’t feel obligated to move because you feel like the place you live in now is too cold or wet. There’s no sure bet that you would feel better somewhere else.

Ultimately, you have to do what is best for you and manage your fibro symptoms in the way that helps you find some relief. But it might be worth trying out a new climate and seeing how you feel. After all, that’s a great excuse to take a vacation somewhere warm.