why does low barometric pressure cause so much pain?

[ankaa]

low barometric pressure is a big trigger for me... does anyone understand the mechanics of this problem? e.g., does is affect nerves, or cardiovascular, or what?

if you have this problem, what has helped you?

 

[Remy]

low barometric pressure is a big trigger for me... does anyone understand the mechanics of this problem? e.g., does is affect nerves, or cardiovascular, or what?

if you have this problem, what has helped you?

It's probably increased inflammation and insufficient cortisol/HPA axis response.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/04/30/why-does-pain-get-worse-when-a-storm-is-coming/

 

[Cort]

low barometric pressure is a big trigger for me... does anyone understand the mechanics of this problem? e.g., does is affect nerves, or cardiovascular, or what?

if you have this problem, what has helped you?

Here's one possibility tied to the possibly sensitive nerves in FM/ME/CFS

But barometric pressure often drops before bad weather sets in. This lower air pressure pushes less against the body, allowing tissues to expand -- and those expanded tissues can put pressure on the joint. "It's very microscopic and we can hardly notice, except that we have these sensations," Jamison says.

Furthermore, when people have chronic pain, sometimes nerves can become more sensitized because of injury, inflammation, scarring, or adhesions, he says.

Nevertheless, the link between pain and weather changes remains hypothetical; research has come to mixed conclusions, Jamison says. "All the results are not very clean, meaning there are people who say that weather doesn't affect their pain."

However moving to a milder climate may not help

So it's not always helpful to believe "that whole myth of, 'Go to Arizona when you live in the Northeast and somehow your pain will be a lot better,'" Jamison says. "We know that if you ask people to rate their pain in Minnesota or Arizona or California or even Florida, there's no one area of the country where you'd say, ‘There's less pain there.'"

There are some suggestions here:http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/features/weather_and_pain#4

 

[ankaa]

It's probably increased inflammation and insufficient cortisol/HPA axis response.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/04/30/why-does-pain-get-worse-when-a-storm-is-coming/

thanks, @Remy I wonder if taking B5 will help? Yesterday, all I could do was go to bed and sleep all day..

Does Ibudilast help w inflammation? I know it affects the brain, and if the glial cells are calmed by ibudilast, maybe it affects nerves all over the body.

 

[ankaa]

However moving to a milder climate may not help

I'm definitely less miserable in california than in the midwest or northeast (where I've lived before).. However, the damp her bothers me... Durango, co is the only place I've felt completely normal, but it has drawbacks, too... I was there during perfect conditions, and things have changed there significantly (methane gas, mining waste dumped in the animas river..)