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User: cole_kc

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  1. pain from falling barometric pressure on Pressure-Induced Pains - Fact or Fiction? · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.