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Pressure-Induced Pains - Fact or Fiction?
johnstein asks: "Sure, everyone knows that person who is always blaming their aches and pains on the weather, be it Gramps and his knee, Aunt Edna with her arthritic hands, or *that* guy at work who swears his big toe begins to throbs whenever it's going to rain. Ok, maybe I am one those people too. I've had exactly TWO migraine-class headaches in the past month: the evening of August 9th and the afternoon of August 17th. Googling produced a very useful website that provides historical weather data. After a bit of searching I found this chart that clearly shows similar barometric trends for the days in question (barometric pressure near 30 inches and rising).
Is this just a coincidence? My googling suggests that while some believe the human body is highly sensitive to weather changes, others claim that the minute changes in barometric pressure would unlikely be a cause for pain in the head or joints. While stress, eating habits, and general lifestyle might be a more likely candidate, can weather claim some of the blame as well?"
Yes. Next question.
Alex.
I notice is more with sinuses and allergies, but it is also there with a wrist I crushed a few years ago. All materials respond in some way to pressure, temperature, and moisture. Why would the human body be any different, especially with a need to maintain a certain internal environment?
"All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
For some number of years I thought my allergy symptoms were related to high pressure systems. After looking at pressure records, they certainly seemed correlated with my sniffling and sneezing. Some of my friends were having headaches at the same time.
However, I have an alternate explanation for my allergies -- high pressure systems affect winds and winds can bring in pollens. The high pressure systems in Northern California come from the west. As they go east, they blow pollen, pesticides, etc. from the California Central Valley to the coast (where I live). At other times we have relatively clean air (well, there's smog...). So when the dirty air comes in, I sneeze. In this theory, high pressure and my allergy symptoms are correlated but high pressure itself isn't the direct cause of those symptoms.
It's just a theory, though. I'm willing to believe that air pressure can affect your health, but I'm also willing to be convinced otherwise. At this point I don't have enough data. I'd love to hear the experiences of others.
- AmitPresumably you also had migranes around the 12th and 24th of July?
I'm no stats genius and the least publishable unit for medical journals is pretty low but before you go submitting this to JAMA:
1) n=2 is a pretty minimal data set. You'd probably want some more data points -- or at least you would if the subject weren't yourself.
2) The fact that 100% of your headaches occur with air pressure of ~30 and rising would be more remarkable if it weren't ~30 and rising every other day in that area. I'd estimate the significance of your discovery at p = 0.5.
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I have a re-constructed left shoulder (high school football injury) and a bum left knee (years of abuse playing various sports). I am 28 years old. There is a 60 year old guy that works in my office, and without fail (for the last 16 months that I have worked there) we both have major or minor aches and pains on the same day. To the extent that the pain in my knee, and both of his, cause us to limp. It is often a amusing thing for the office to see the youngest and the second oldest complaining about our bad joints. We are known on these days as the "old farts" of the office. The rest of the time I am the young kid that plays his music too loud, and he is the overly energetic one. Everyone has decided it must be weather related. It is... right?
Just spray some WD-40 on your head. My uncle claims that it works wonders for his knee when it's about to rain. Then again, he probably smokes crack about the same time, so that might have something to do with it also...
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...like, implanted medical equipment.
I shattered my lower left leg. Recovery has been very, very good, but I still have a small pin/screw through the ankle. The rate of expansion/contraction of [whatever material it is, probably surgical steel] is not quite the same as that of bone, because on hot and humid days like today, that ankle hurts like a sonuvabitch.
The surgeon and all the staff told me I would probably be able to predict thunderstorms for as long as I have the pin in, but would also be going through a tad more Advil than normal. :-)
(I'm not complaining. I'm alive and can walk!)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Did you feel nauseous, become unable to think clearly, or see spots? If they were that bad, you ought to get the opinion of a doctor, cause migraines are nothing to mess around with.
If they weren't, you ought to be more careful with your adjectives. I hate it when people call every headache they get a "migraine". They're a fundamentally different kind of pain than what most people think of as "headaches".
On a (hopefully more useful) note, I get both migraine headaches and sinus-pressure headaches. The latter are much more closely related to the weather. If you have allergy or sinus problems, a decongestant tablet will probably do wonders for those headaches, if you take it before they get too bad.
-Mark
I suffer from both sinus headaches and cluster headaches (which used to be classified as a type of migraine, but are no longer -- think all the pain of a day-long migraine compressed into 45 minutes and you get the idea).
Usually my cluster headaches are sinus or lifestyle-triggered: dehydration, strong perfume, aerosol household cleaners, lack of sleep among others are biggies.
I've noticed (non-scientific) that changes in pressure and sudden changes in weather bring on my sinus headaches. Pollen and humidity have a lot to do with this -- I'm a Florida native and when I travel elsewhere that's drier or less allergen prone, my sinus headaches are fewer and much, much less severe.
At any rate, I've been living with the sinus headaches most of my life, and the cluster headaches for about 10 years now (I'm 28).
The major problem with cluster headaches is that they come on fast and they leave fast -- usually about an hour and a half from 'warning signs' to 'resolution'. Once the headache actually hits, I'm pretty much incapacitated for about 45 minutes -- crippling pain, and nausea if it's a really bad one. It's also too short for most types of pain medication to take effect in time.
I've found precisely two medications that work:
1. 4-in-1 brand nose spray (over the counter). Very addictive, so be careful. Seriously. Google for reasons you shouldn't use stuff like Contac (like the parent) or nose sprays regularly. I've found that if I notice a cluster coming on early enough (not nearly often enough) that the clusters can be dulled -- sometimes they don't peak if I catch them early enough. I classify this as a preventative.
2. Immitrex (prescription). Absolute godsend for my cluster headaches and my fiancee's migraines (she gets them very rarely, but we're both prescribed). Side effects can't be described as pleasant. I'm not sure I can describe them besides saying: I feel unpleasantly odd for about two hours, but it's a hell of a lot *more* pleasant than the cluster/migraine. The side effects are such that I will only take these when I'm having a major attack -- but I'm very glad I've got them because even after ten years I still get attacks that leave me clenched up sweating in a fetal position for an hour or so.
Best of luck figuring out your headaches. I've been trying to for 10 years. I'll go six months having them twice a day and then go another six months without a single one.
I've pretty much realized that I'm stuck with mine for the rest of my life and I cope with them. Meditation helps (shortens the duration, makes coping with the pain easier), eating healthy seems to help, getting a good amount of sleep seems to help -- but nothing's a 100% cure.
If you *have* been diagnosed with clinical migraine, ask about Immitrex. It's expensive, and can be a bit unpleasant feeling -- but if you could have a pill that would cut the duration of your headaches down to 20 minutes (vs many hours) would you? Most true migraine sufferers I know would gladly make that tradeoff.
The medical consensus seems to be "probably". Like most Ask Slashdot questions that don't pertain directly to geek topics, a nice thorough answer can be found at Straight Dope.
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My wife used to take Immitrex for migraines, until she discovered that it was a side-effect of her birth control pills that seemed to be causing the migraines.
Her GYN had her try a couple different birth control prescriptions (different brand, smaller doses, etc.) and she has gone from 1-2 migraines a month to maybe 1-2 a year. It was a godsend to her, not to mention a lot cheaper without Immitrex!
As mentioned in this BBC News article, the late Barry Sheene, a Former world motorcycling champion who underwent major surgery several times in his career (he had metal plates in both knees, 28 screws in his legs and a bolt in his left wrist) moved to Australia specifically because the weather there was easier on his body.
The exact quote is as follows:
Sheene moved to the warmer climes of Australia in the early 1990s to ease the pain caused by arthritis from numerous broken bones suffered in crashes.
This isn't an isolated mention either - it is very common for people who've had metal plates surgically inserted to feel discomfort in the cold.
Coming back to your case though, it is extremely common for migraine sufferers to suffer more attacks in summer than in winter. Certainly every sufferer that I know of agrees with that statement and various articles in respected medical journals (such as The Lancet) say the same thing.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The body (both human and animal) is much more complex and sensitive than most people give credit for. There are reasons horses and dogs and such will go nuts before earthquakes. It's not because they are magic, but because they can sense it coming. Let's not forget, we have five senses that we know of. The pressure will be one of them (touch).
Unfortunately, over the years we have come to rely less and less on our own natural abilities to sense things. Our sense of vision isn't nearly as strong as years ago. And if it goes, get glasses. Smell? Our noses are being bombarded by smells every day, but more importantly we don't rely on it to protect us from a nearby predator. Same with our sense of hearing. We care more about music than the rustling in the bushes.
And this is all simply us adapting AWAY from being sensitive. You'll find some people are sensitive and in tune with their body. And being in tune, listening to your body and what it says, will have you feeling things others can't.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Along with most people here, I've seen pretty good anecdotal evidence to believe that aches and pains can predict the weather. Ultimately, the only way you're going to find out is if you track changes in barometric pressure each day and log all aches and pains for a while.
However, while you're doing so, I'd recommend that you also log your caffeine intake. Over a decade of nearly migrane-level headaches has become just a part of my past since I discovered that caffeine withdrawl was causing my problem and simply swore off of caffeine permanently. Most people who have aches and pains before the weather have them in their joints. I've never heard of headaches as a symptom before.
Check your caffeine intake levels as an indicator.
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Of course, it's always possible that your headaches are causing the weather disturbances. Never underestimate your own importance in the Grand Scheme of Things (tm).
This has been happening to me for 30 years.
My neurosurgeon explained it like this: when the ambient atmospheric pressure rises, the compensatory inner cellular pressure rises to match it so that the cells keep their shape etc.
When the atmospheric pressure falls, the compensatory cellular pressure falls.
The problem is the old adjust-the-shower system problem: it takes a while for the cells to adjust. So for a time, when the pressure falls and before the cells have had time to adjust, there is swelling. This swelling happens to the cells in the nervous system.
When the nerves swell they can touch the passageways through which they go from the spine to the extremities. This is particularly true of the nerves that go from the neck through the shoulder and from the lumbar spine through the hips (the sciatic branch). This causes referred pain in the extremities. So that's why you get people with arthritis to complain.
The swelling also affects joint tissue, causing the tissues to suffer more from the abrasions of the bone spurs etc.
It's hell.