Welcome to Thursday Coffee Hour. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new with you. We have been having thunderstorms where I live. I knew they were coming in about 24 hours prior because my arthritis flared up big time. Reid's neuropathy also went into overdrive. Pixie has been going nuts, well more nuts than usual. So is there anything to predicting weather like this? Follow me below the orange cheeto to see what people are saying.
Robert Newlin Jamison, PhD, is a professor in the departments of psychiatry and anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School and a researcher who has studied weather's effects on chronic pain patients. He noted that among all people interviewed about their chronic pain, "Two-thirds said they were pretty sure that weather seems to affect their pain," he says. "Most of them reported that they could actually feel the changes even before the weather changed. In other words, they could feel some increased pain the day before the storm comes."
David Borenstein, MD, FACP, FACR, a rheumatologist and clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University Medical Center and past president of the American College of Rheumatology says it's typical for joint pain to start even before the first raindrops fall.
The belief that humans can "feel" changes in weather goes back to Hippocrates in the fourth century B.C and maybe even earlier. People have been observing animals for centuries to see if they can predict weather.
While science hasn't come out and positively said that changes in weather can be felt they are willing to look into the phenomenon. Barometric pressure is the area that is getting the most interest. Barometric pressure is the pressure exerted by the air around us. A drop in barometric pressure often precedes a storm, and the theory goes that a decrease in the air pressure can cause the tissues around the joints to swell, causing arthritic pain. Proponents of the idea use a balloon in a barometric chamber as a simulator. If the pressure outside drops, the air in the balloon expands. If the same happened in the area around an arthritic joint, the expansion or swelling could irritate the nerves, causing pain.
Animals are highly tuned in to any changes beyond the natural fluctuations, which can signal big changes in the weather. It is part of their survival instincts to seek safer ground before storms come in.
So while scientists continue to debate those of us with arthritis know when a storm comes in. All of my cats over the years have been accurate weather predictors. How about you? Can you feel a storm coming on? And one of our favorite questions here on Street Prophets what's for dinner?
Stormy Seas