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Feel It? 4 Ways Barometric Pressure Affects Your Health (And Why It Matters) (migraineagain.com)

 

Feel It? 4 Ways Barometric Pressure Affects Your Health

ByAngie Glaser

Jul 8, 2022

Can you feel a storm coming a mile away? Have you been told you're a human barometer who can sense changes in barometric pressure? You're not crazy and you're not alone. It is possible to feel that storm coming "in your bones" — or in your head.

"Barometric pressure is atmospheric pressure, the weight of the atmosphere," said Cynthia Armand, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at Montefiore-Einstein and the fellowship director at the Montefiore Headache Center in New York, during a Facebook Live chat hosted by the American Migraine Foundation. "It signals and lets us know what's going on.

"Barometric pressure changes affect our bodies in a handful of ways. Some people may be more sensitive to weather changes than others, like people with migraine or arthritis.

"If there's a fall in barometric pressure, that means a storm or some kind of weather change is coming," Dr. Armand said.

It's difficult to say the barometric pressure is solely responsible for extra aches, though. Weather shifts and storms come with other changes like temperature swings, rain or snow, and changes in the wind.

What Is the Barometric Pressure Today?

Your favorite weather app or website should tell you what the barometric pressure is today in your area. More important than the pressure itself, though, is whether it is rising or falling. For a migraine-specific weather forecast, check out Accuweather.com. There is also an app called WeatherX that will send you a notification when the pressure in your area starts changing.

Some of the ways weather and barometric pressure changes can affect your health include:

1. Headaches and Migraine Attacks

"What we found in our studies was the environment is probably one of the most important triggers for migraine attacks, " said Vince Martin, MD, director of the Headache and Facial Pain Center at the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute, during the 2019 Migraine World Summit.

Dr. Martin is one of the leading world experts in migraine triggers like low barometric pressure, stress, neck pain, and food. He presented the latest research at the 2019 American Headache Society conference to over 1,300 doctors and headache experts.

"About 30 to 50% of all migraine patients think they have a weather trigger, but I would argue that because of the multitude of triggers with weather that many people may not even recognize they have a weather trigger."

Normal barometric pressure changes are one of the most commonly reported weather-related migraine triggers. Migraine attacks are thought to be triggered by environmental or biological changes, and that includes changing atmospheric pressure.

Armand explained, "Our head is made up of pockets of air that we call sinuses. Usually, those pockets of air are at equilibrium with the atmospheric pressure. When there's a change in that atmospheric pressure, it creates a change in what you're experiencing in your head and what's going on in the air around you. That shift is a migraine trigger."

The temperature changes that tend to come with changing barometric pressure are another migraine trigger. "Any temperature change, warm from cold or cold to warm can bring on a migraine attack," said Armand.

If the changing barometric pressure comes with a lightning storm, the chances of it triggering a migraine attack are even greater. Martin explained his fascinating research linking migraine and lightning:

"We published a study in 2013 in the journal Cephalalgia where we found that if there was lightning within 25 miles of the home residence of that particular individual, there was about a 25 to 30% increased risk of both new-onset headaches, which means the headache started on that day, or new-onset migraine.

"Then we also developed models where we're able to determine, well, was it the lightning or was it the other meteorological factors associated with a thunderstorm, like precipitation or barometric pressure?" he said. "Even after we accounted for those things, lightning was still a unique trigger for migraine."

2. Blood Pressure

How can the barometric pressure today affect your blood pressure? Your circulatory system is made up of your heart, which acts as a pump, and your arteries and veins, which carry blood to and from your heart and tissues. Blood pressure is determined by the rate and strength of your heart and the resistance of your blood vessels. Changing blood pressure is another big health effect of barometric pressure.

"When it gets cold, your blood vessels constrict. This causes your blood pressure to increase because it takes more pressure to move blood through a narrower space, explained Sheldon Sheps, MD, emeritus professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, on mayoclinic.org.

"In addition to cold weather, blood pressure may also be affected by a sudden change in weather patterns, such as a weather front or a storm," said Dr. Sheps. "Your body — and blood vessels — may react to abrupt changes in humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloud cover or wind in much the same way it reacts to cold."

"These weather-related variations in blood pressure are more common in people ages 65 and older," he said.

3. Blood Sugar

When the pressure drops during a cold front, it causes the viscosity, or thickness, of the blood to increase, said Jennifer Vanos, assistant professor in geosciences at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, in an interview with weather.com

 

"Diabetics will have more trouble controlling their blood sugar during cold fronts," she said.

Rapidly dropping blood sugar could also trigger a migraine attack. Reactive hypoglycemia is a condition in which your blood sugar falls quickly, and it usually happens when the sugar rush from high-carb or high-glucose foods wears off. It's one of the least understood, but very real, migraine triggers.

When blood sugar dips as a result of a change in the environment, it can produce what is called low barometric pressure fatigue.

4. Joint Pain

s at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston surveyed 200 patients with knee osteoarthritis and found a link between changes in barometric pressure and ambient temperature and changes in knee pain severity

.

What is high barometric pressure and how does it differ from the impact of low barometric pressure symptoms that raise your awareness of mysterious joint pain?

"It's not clear why a falling barometer would exacerbate joint pain and arthritis, but studies such as this one confirm that they do," reported Mother Nature. "It could be that barometric pressure affects the viscosity of the fluid that lines joint sacs, or it could be that it triggers the pain responses in the nerve endings of the joint. Either way, it's what your grandma has been saying for years: Some people feel pain in their joints when a storm is approaching."

Some people really can feel atmospheric pressure changes within their bodies.

Those with migraine, diabetes, high or low blood pressure, or osteoarthritis are the most susceptible to extra aches and pains before a storm. You can't control the weather, but understanding how weather changes affect you can help you prevent the worst or make better plans to weather the storm.

These 4 high- and low-barometric-pressure symptoms may help explain why you're feeling a bit off. Paying attention to changing weather patterns and weather symptoms can be a good way to manage your overall health.