“Are we living barometers?” I happened upon this article from Wellness Options Magazine and had to share it, as many of us with chronic illnesses experience a worsening of our symptoms when barometric pressure changes and wonder “Why”? Through the years I have searched the web and asked questions of doctors as to why my symptoms and level of function worsen when the weather changes–warmer storm fronts moving in and out, in particular. I have found it difficult to find answers or information.
This article directly addresses and contemplates the effect of barometric pressure changes on physiology. Here is an excerpt:
Are we living barometers?
Many animals and plants can sense changes in weather. Birds feel a drop in barometric pressure before the arrival of ñbadî weather and increase their foraging. Cats become restless, and ants prepare their mounds for the expected rain and wind. Some people claim they can predict weather based on how their bodies feel, and scientists have detected some physiological evidence that this may be true.
Rapid changes in temperature affect blood pH, blood pressure, urine volume, and tissue permeability. Epidemics may also be related to sudden, large changes in weather conditions. A longitudinal study of 59 years of data demonstrated that sudden increases in influenza outbreaks in Germany, Norway, and Switzerland most frequently occurred between January and March, when cold air masses moved over the areas.
Medical conditions that are sensitive to weather changes include: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, low back pain, gout, fibromyalgia, phantom limb pain, scar pain, headaches, trigeminal neuralgia, and pain influenced by mood disorders. Weather is also associated with changes in birth rates, sperm count, outbreaks of pneumonia, influenza and bronchitis.
Changes in weather can also induce short-term swings in mood, emotional well-being, and behavioural aberrations. Some of the meteorological variables implicated include: temperature, barometric pressure, rainfall, humidity, thunder-storm activity, sunshine, and the level of ionization of the air.
Click here to continue reading this article (full of more enlightening information, including- why we might feel worse January through March)
Ghalib writes of rain and weather as metaphors for experiencing and accepting life fully; for the pain that often must be endured to do so. I wrote my most recent post about changing weather worsening chronic illness/pain; finding this poem today feels like a gift in timing.
Ghalib’s rain drop experiences unbearable pain in order to become the river. As drops of rain fall on the fire-red Japanese maple leaves outside our living room window, I can’t help but smile and see them (and my own weather- flared physical pain) through Ghalib’s wise poetic eyes.
For the Raindrop
by, Ghalib
For the raindrop-joy is in entering the river—
Unbearable pain becomes it’s own cure.
Travel far enough into sorrow, tears turn to sighing;
In this way we learn how water can die into air.
When, after heavy rain, the stormclouds disperse,
Is it not that they’ve wept themselves clear to the end?
If you want to know a miracle, how wind can polish a mirror,
Look: the shiney glass grows green in spring.
It’s the roses unfolding, Ghalib, that creates the desire to see—
In every color and circumstance, may the eyes be open for what comes.
*Ghalib was a 19th century Persian poet.
Since having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia, I feel like I’ve become a Meterologist. Those of you who have CFS/FMS or similar conditions, can you relate? Does your family ask you about the weather instead of consulting the local paper, online or television forecast? Or are they like my family; they know clouds, rain or a storm are moving in just by looking at you…because you don’t look so good.
I feel a low pressure front before clouds can be seen and without knowing what weather has been forecasted. My neurological system is most affected; my left side (that has weakened with my illness and lost some permanent coordination) becomes weak to paralysis and uncoordinated to uselessness. My brain hurts as if it is a balloon that won’t pop, being filled with water far past capacity. My cognitive processing slows as if my thoughts are moving through setting concrete. Words I want to use hide from me and words I don’t want to use take their place. I feel as if my IQ deflates like a tire with a leak. Often I can not stay awake. Pain flares. My eyelids swell to half mast. My face swells. I am not a pretty sight, nor in the best of moods.
For years I’ve searched online for correlations between barometric changes and the symptoms I experience, and found little. It has long been understood that weather changes affect Arthritis. Recently there is a growing awareness that barometric pressure changes can trigger migraines and asthma attacks…and thankfully, it is understood that it can trigger the pain aspect of Fibromyalgia as it does Arthritis.
Hopefully with understanding of CFS/FMS will come understanding of the correlating weather sensitivity many of experience. I sure don’t know the answers, but I find myself conjecturing when I’m “under the weather”. Perhaps barometric pressure changes cause inflammation of the brain and nerves as they do the joints in Arthritis. Perhaps those of us whose disease process was triggered by a neck injury affecting the spinal cord, experience inflammation in the area of injury, which inflames the nervous system. Medical research ultimately will reveal answers, but it’s going to take awhile. Meanwhile…
I hope by sharing our experiences with barometric pressure changes, we can learn more about this piece of CFS/FMS from each other. Do barometric pressure changes trigger your CFS/FMS symptoms and if so, how? If you are comfortable sharing just click on comments (or “read comments” below.)
