: Rheumatism as "Wind-wetness" In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), rheumatism is known as "wind-wetness". Adherents to TCM: Believe that being wet and exposed to wind greatly increases the chances that one will suffer

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"Rheumatism" isn't one disease. It's not even a set of closely related diseases, it's just a name for anything affecting the joints and/or connective tissue. As such, there is a wide range of illnesses and causes for these illnesses.

What most people mean when they say rheumatism is arthritis, which is yet another word for a wide range of illnesses, though at least a more narrow one for ones affecting the joints. Most prominent among those diseases are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis is also known as "degenerative arthritis". As the name says, it is a degenerative disease, the primary cause is damage from mechanical stress, whether from repetitive movement or mechanical injury. It is not caused by getting cold.

However, people with arthritis often feel worse when experiencing high humidity combined with low barometric pressure.

Rheumatoid arthritis has a very different cause - it is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the joints and as a response, the joint capsule swells. While autoimmune diseases are still being understood, they often have a genetic and an environmental component. This environmental component can be an infection, which could coincide with someone getting very cold. This connection is very weak at best, though.

However, proving a negative is hard, so there is no evidence that windy or wet weather can't cause arthritis. However, when looking at epidemiological data for rheumatoid arthritis

The incidence appears to be highest in Pima Indians (5.3%) and Chippewa Indians (6.8%), and lowest in people from China and Japan (0.2%-0.3%)

As I understand it, Japan actually has a "rainy season" for several weeks a year.

Is it impossible that some form of arthritis (which is the umbrella term for a wide range of diseases) often appears in regions where it is windy? No, of course not. But this belief has all the marks of confirmation bias - if you live in a wet and windy climate, you get wet or cold a lot without suddenly developing joint pain. However, the one time it does happen, it's the weather's fault... And because high humidity makes osteoarthritis worse, that might be the first time someone really notices their condition.

Sources and further reading

Overview of Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Causes of osteoarthritis

Causes of rheumatoid arthritis

Overview of Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Weather and osteoarthritis