Sensitive to barometric pressure? What are your symptoms?

It is 2024, four years ago you posted this. I am constantly googling and researching some type of answer or description that matches how I feel with the sudden change of weather and air pressure or whatever it is. It always hits around this time of the year for me I'm in California, Los Angeles to be exact. Everyone around me thinks I am nuts in my head everytime I describe how sensitive I seem to be by changes in weather and barometric pressure in the air. I can feel it and I can hear every ounce of it. It puts me in a bad mood and I feel like crap. It's almost like this fear of a lightning storm is taking place and I can't describe anything past it. I get frustrated easily and I don't like going out when its happening. I don't know why or what but thought it was only me.

Hi Amy. I just get sleepy, feel kinda drugged. No other symptoms. Judging by my cat, it's a thing. Also have searched online and found nothing. I do find that if I keep physically active, the feeling kinda goes away.

I have rheumatoid arthritis and I can definitely feel it when the weather's going to change.  I saw an earlier post about the affect on autism/asberger's.  I have adhd and never really thought about how the weather might affect it.  Guess I'll have to pay more attention. Get it? rofl  Seriously, though, I will truly try to remember to think about how I'm doing brain wise when I have a weather related RA flare.

I get bad migraine like symptoms when the pressure is high, and when the pressure changes rapidly, I am also a walking rain alert: a building mild sinus headache will suddenly cease right before a downpour. I've had to relocate due to Chinooks.

It's not surprisingly really we have so many members talking about this: we are almost entirely made of water!

I told my darling wife that when the barometer went low I had to adjust my internal swim bladder, like a fish. She said no, you farted you dirt bag.

I am thinking is this phenomenon neural atypical?

And if so, what that means?

Neuro diversitility? (a word?)

Go to nature and avoid places with a certain something that is sensed? Or go elsewhere?

That place may be in nature where it's quiet...

But not necessarily and we're tree hugging types Maybe that's what I want to believe : that we're non political tree hugging nature lovers who would love to teach the world to sing

Two of my sons (the ones with the more pronounced autism) are definitely sensitive to barometric pressure. One would always start getting agitated a day or so before a storm system came through. The other one used to tell us it was going to rain before there were obvious signs of it, but he hasn't done that since he was little (too many other things going on in his mind now, I think).

My fibro pain is worse when storms are coming in the winter. Not so bad in the spring, summer, and fall, but winter storms make some of my joints hurt. Like my one son, it hits ahead of the storms--usually one to three days in my case.

Hi, all. New to permies.com  Found the Kickstarter campaign for the purple cards a few days ago and pledged.

Reading this thread was very interesting.

At age 10, we were doing one of those stupid things children do. I slammed head-first into a large oak tree. Left Frontal Lobe Traumatic Brain Injury #1. I had headaches whenever the barometer changed. Sensitivity to storms and tornados (grew up on an Indiana farm). Also a need to "feed the beast" with salty, protein, and carbohydrate rich foods. Sweets made symptoms worse.

I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis at 16.  My hips, spine and hands are sensitive to weather changes: symptoms: pain and irritability.

For the last 29 years, I have been in recovery for two additional left-frontal lobe traumatic brain injuries, 9 years apart (basically considered back-to-back TBIs). Think of an earthquake scale (logarithmic): the third TBI was a logarithmic step worse than the second. Whenever the weather changes for the worse, I get: headaches, optical migraines, sinus issues, lymph node swelling, pain in the "healed" 4 broken ribs I have sustained, pain in my hands, hips and spine, vertigo (typical with TBI), balance issues worsen, excessively tired (sleep much during stormy days), teary eyes, itchy eyes, pain in the depressed skull fracture area, irritable, itchy skin, brain fog, speech difficulties, right earache, increased tinnitus, an increased need for shrub-enhanced water.

Because of the TBI recovery, I eat exceptionally well: mostly organic; lots of vegetables; little fruit; high quality meats: mostly bison, lamb, turkey, wild-caught salmon; animal fats. I cook from scratch because my nutritional needs vary wildly day-to-day. Any type of restaurant foods upset my digestion. I do believe my diet plays a major role in my health and helps reduce the symptoms.

Since I am retired, I have the luxury of hibernating during the worst of the symptoms. I have adverse reactions to most drugs (discovered when I was a child) so do not take man-made modern medicines. No alcohol (allergy). I find the best grade organic dark chocolate (88% cacao or higher; I used to eat my mother's Bakers Chocolate when I was a child) will sooth most of the symptoms. Many mushrooms help as well. Salty, protein, and carbohydrate rich foods also help. Toss in some ACV to balance blood chemistry. Again, sweets aggravate the symptoms.

For years, I have searched for confirmation of this weather sensitivity. Mostly, I have been told "it is all in your head". Not quite.

Except for the Rheumatoid Arthritis, I test exceptionally healthy.  

Thanks for this thread!

Maggie Scott wrote:Hi, all. New to permies.com  Found the Kickstarter campaign for the purple cards a few days ago and pledged.

Glad you found us, Maggie. Thank you for sharing. I had a brother with TBI. It's not easy. Can't imagine having had three of them, and the pain you deal with.

Maggie Scott wrote:

For years, I have searched for confirmation of this weather sensitivity. Mostly, I have been told "it is all in your head". Not quite.

One of the things that I find odd about establishment medicine is the reluctance to believe patients when they report something that wasn't in one of the text books, especially as more and more people report the same thing. So much of what we now understand on a scientific level was considered anecdotal at first. That's how it starts. Somebody notices something. Other people also notice it. At some point someone decides to research it. The process of discovery has to start somewhere. The start is as important as the end result...there is no end result without a start. Dismissal does not move scientific discovery forward, and it does not enhance the doctor-patient relationship either.

I wouldn't wish it on anyone but I gotta admit I'm glad I'm not alone. I get all those crazy symptoms just before the pressure drops or rises. Dizzy. Vertigo, sleepy, wub wub, sinus congestion, nausea..The faster it changes the worse it is sometimes leading to debilitating awful headaches I call suicide headaches because it can get that bad where I'm begging for mercy. I'm pretty sure it's a result of childhood brain trauma from a nasty brother who used my head as a baseball. Frontal blow with a bat I figure messed up my hypothalamus. Probably scar tissue in sinuses.
Anyway, I wanted to share this site: barometricpressure.today
If you sign up they send you email notices whenever the barometric pressure is going to change significantly so you can take whatever precautions you do. It helped me confirm my suspicion that it's the barometric pressure causing the problem.

Of course climate chaos is contributing to our symptoms being worse.

Thanks for this thread, it really does help knowing we're not alone

Anne Miller wrote:My remedy for headaches is to use circular massage when the headache is.

This might be similar to the use of pressure points.

I suffer from severe migraines, and one of my triggers is a change in pressure. As witnessed in this thread, it's a trigger for many migraineurs. I find acupressure work best for me. My wife got me some wooden pegs in Myanmar that are designed for stimulating pressure points. They look something like this: Accupressure dowels

Randy Eggert wrote:  I find acupressure work best for me. My wife got me some wooden pegs in Myanmar that are designed for stimulating pressure points.

How do you use the wooden pegs?  Are the rolled across the skin at he point of the pain?

Anne Miller wrote:

Randy Eggert wrote:  I find acupressure work best for me. My wife got me some wooden pegs in Myanmar that are designed for stimulating pressure points.

How do you use the wooden pegs?  Are the rolled across the skin at he point of the pain?

I put the rounded end in the palm of my hand, put the pointed end on the pressure point, and push nearly to the point that the sharp pain is unbearable, holding it for 30 seconds.

I started with points that an acupressurist had used, but I've slowly found the most effective for me. Essentially, it's spots that are especially tender during a migraine attack: the temples, the notch above my eye sockets, my forehead near my hairline, the top of my scalp. I do both sides at the same time (i.e, both temples, both eye sockets, etc.). It can be extremely painful depending on the severity of the attack, but 9 times out of 10 the migraine goes away after I complete the final pressure point.