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Linking Barometric Pressure And How We Feel


Simmy

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Dr Oz's Show today

Dr. Oz shares 2 alternative health secrets that he's vowed to try this year. The audience member taking the "hits" is a hoot! <_<

1. Himalayan crystal salt inhaler: This salt is all-natural and pollutant-free. It helps with allergies, sinus infections and breathing difficulties.

2. The inversion table: A $100 piece of equipment that increases blood flow to the head and the release of serotonin and endorphins.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/two-alterna...edicine-secrets

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I live in PA, and we're supposed to get a lot of rain tomorrow. Today my head has felt so bad all day long..I'm extremely dizzy and have so much head pressure. I haven't kept track of the barometric pressure..but whenever we're supposed to be getting rain, I seem to get a lot worse.

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Dakota ? I just looked up the Lackawanna coal mine in Pennsylvania, on Google Earth. The entrance to the mine is actually 992 feet above sea level, so that won?t do. Thanks for trying. I don?t know very much about mines or caves, but they all seem to be located well above sea level to begin with, which I guess is nature?s way of creating them in the first place. It looks like my only other alternative to get well below sea level is to jump into a volcano. I?ll let you know how that goes when I climb out (I don?t think I?ll have a good cell phone connection inside).

McBlonde ? I know. Whenever I shower now, it?s never with hot water anymore. Even just washing my hands with hot water gives me the pumpity-pumps. I imagine it?s not that comfortable to bathe in lukewarm water, huh? Sorry to hear about your headache, but it looks like today is a slightly above average pressure day for you in LA. The inversion table sounds familiar. After I climb the stairs to go to my bedroom at night I lie on my stomach flat on my bed, with my head hanging over the side, and that helps to relieve some of the symptoms temporarily.

Nikki ? I also felt that coming on yesterday and it?s gotten worse today. I?m in Northeastern New Jersey, so we?re under the same Low. Right now it?s 29.47 here, not terrible, but not good either, but tomorrow looks better for us.

A good online barometric pressure map I?ve found is located at:

http://www.usairnet.com/weather/maps/curre...etric-pressure/

Unfortunately, instead of displaying measurements using Inches of Mercury (inHg) it uses Millibars (mbar), so the numbers can be confusing. All you really need to know is that, at sea level, an average day of 29.93inHg is equal to 1013mbar, high pressure of 30.30inHg equals 1026mbar, and a hurricane's Low pressure of 29.00inHg equals 982mbar. Remember to adjust your numbers based on your altitude. Just a quick glance at the map gives you a good idea as to where the highs and lows are. The very center of any of the ?fingerprints? is the ?eye? of that particular Low or High pressure system.

I hope that helps.

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I live in CA, but moved to Maryland last September. The climate was so horrible for me, I had to move back to CA. I found that I was much much more POTSY on humid, rainy/cloudy days, but even worse was the intense head pressure. The whooshing pounding all day long in my head. I didn't feel like this on just the humid days - only when a storm was coming in - so I naturally attributed it to low pressure. However, I do just fine when storms come in here in CA, and also, ironically, I do GREAT at high altitudes. In fact, I just returned from a trip to New Mexico at 7,000 feet where I felt great, and I feel worse in CA. So makes me wonder if it's the pressure at all, or something else about the cloudy weather of the east coast climate. A combo of the humidity and low pressure?

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Valliali - You are a conundrum. Nothing about what you said makes sense, but I believe every word of it. Trying to figure out causes of our symptoms is certainly frustrating enough, but then you gotta go and throw a monkeywrench in the middle :blink:

Maybe California's more temperate climate, as opposed to the ever-changing climate of the northeast, has benefits.

7,000 feet and you felt fine? - that's mind-boggling to me, but logically there must be a physical reason for this. As I mentioned earlier, most of us feel worse in higher humidity, so perhaps the very dry New Mexico air is so beneficial that it negates the potential harmful effects of lower pressure. It could be a smaller concentration of pollutants in the air, like CO2. Then again it could also be because it was Tuesday and a flock of pink flamingos flew over a yellow sailboat exactly 2,873 miles southeast of you. This is POTS, it could be anything.

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HAha, so true, Simmy! The truth is I always do better at high altitudes. Last year, I was having a bad flare and took a trip to Utah. I almost cancelled my trip because I was feeling so sick, but my boyfriend was really excited, so I was prepared for a huge amount of discomfort. As soon as we ascended to a higher elevation, I felt almost total relief. By the next day, I was doing great.

I do believe it's because it's super dry and I do very well in dry dry dry. I also don't have issues in dry heat. Give me a 120 degree day here in CA over an 85 degree humid day on the east. But it's very strange that here in the winter, when it's stormy and humid, I really don't have many issues. On the east, when it's humid and stormy, but also HOT, I'm down and out, totally bedridden.

Odd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I actually want to move back east again (my father is ill) so I'm going to test out my health this September, which was when I visited last when it was really bad. I have improved in my health, so I'm hoping things are better.

For those who have the head pressure on the humid, rainy days, anyone have any possible understanding of causes? Any meds help??? I get the intense pressure, but no pain, so unlikely to be migraines. Wondering if anything has helped any of you?

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Valliali - First, sorry to hear about your dad's health, I wish him well.

I should have asked this of you earlier, since there are so many forms of POTS, which are you? If you're like me - hypo with blood pooling, then I can't make sense of your body's reaction to lower pressure. On the other hand if you're hyper, it could have the exact opposite effect (like salt intake needs) and make sense after all.

There is something to be said however about dry heat being much more easily tolerated than moist heat, I definitely agree with that.

For me, ice packs on the back of my skull and neck helps my head pressure on those nasty days.

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I'm way late to this party :blink: , but I've enjoyed reading the thread. Interesting premise.

This may or may not be relevant (and we've talked about it in other threads), BUT my son's (and my) blood work looks like that of a person living in an extremely high elevation and suffering from altitude sickness. It also indicates that we are severely dehydrated despite heroic efforts to keep hydrated. I forgot the particulars, but we have way too many red blood cells, etc. There are many here with similar blood work abnormalities. My son's ped (from Hopkins) said Mack's blood work looks like that of someone suffering from orthostatic intolerance & chronic fatigue syndrome.

So whatever happens at high altitude- oxygen deprivation, dehydration, etc. happens to us in normal life at 700 feet above sea level.

Here is an interesting website that helps us understand how barometric pressure, etc. affects us at different altitudes. It even has a calculator where you can punch in your altitude to see what that does to the normal person's phsyiology.

http://www.altitude.org/air_pressure.php

Keep thinking outside the box. Anything that might lead to a helpful tip. Gotta go, I'm packing for a move to the Dead Sea ;)

Julie

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Simmy-

Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you. The weather here this week has been typical for NM spring-time... everything from snow to rain to 60 mph winds so it's been hard to get a reading for a "clear day" like you requested. Looking back over the 3 day barometric pressure history for us, the lowest was 29.67 and the highest was 30.40 so it doesn't seem like that's a lot different from what you're reporting back east.

Re: how I react at sea level.. usually if I travel to sea level it's in the summer and definitely the heat and humidity have a BIG impact on me. Maybe it's because I've been at this altitude for the vast majority of my life, but I really think the dry air helps me much more than the altitude bothers me. Or maybe like you noted in a prior post, it's because of the pink flamingos flying over the yellow sailboat somewhere out in the Pacific. :blink:

Usually when we get the monsoon rains in July-Sept out here, I have a really hard time with my symptoms. So maybe it is the humidity more than the barometric pressure???

Juli- interesting about your blood work. When I was at the dr. a month or so ago, she said "wow, your urine is REALLY concentrated, are you drinking anything at all?" I assured her I was making a point to drink at least 2 liters of water a day. She said "well that should do it, but I don't understand why this is showing these results." Hmmm.....

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Julie - I've heard the comparison mentioned too, about us and altitude sickness, and I also drink over two liters of Gatorade a day and am dehydrated. There is definite oxygen deprivation occurring even at sea level, when pressure is low, although nowhere near as much as at high altitudes. When pressure drops, so does total oxygen inhaled with each breath. I'll explain below. And thanks for the link, that was cool.

Chaos - You made a very common error in the 3-day barometric pressure readings for your area - those were the "reported numbers" as you may have heard on the news or the internet. Those numbers are adjusted to sea level, regardless of altitude, so a 'nice day' at sea level would read the same as one in Denver. They do not account for altitude, so you must do that on your own by either checking the pressure yourself using your own barometer, or deducting (about) 0.1 inHg for every 100 feet in altitude, or in your case at about 5,000 feet, 5.0. So your actual true barometric pressure ranged from about 24.67 to 25.40 - a humongous difference as you can see. Put another way, where air density is 1.00 at sea level and 0.00 beyond the earth's atmosphere, at 5,000 feet it is 0.86 - you've lost 14% of the air and, along with it, 14% of the available oxygen to breathe because the ratio of elements in the air remains more or less constant regardless of altitude. At 15,000 feet it's down to 0.64 - one third of the air gone, which causes altitude sickness.

Even the nastiest of hurricanes, call it a 28.50 inHg, is equivalent to a nice day at only 2,000 feet, so altitude can be much worse on us than even the worst storm. Then again, it could be the drastic drop in pressure in a short period of time - whether by weather, airplane, or ascent of a mountain that causes problems, but once you're at and remain at say 5,000 feet, your body adjusts? Or, as some are suggesting, it's the dryness that's so good. Or is it PFS? (Pink Flamingo Syndrome)

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Simmy- You're right, I went to the NOAA web site to get those readings for the past 3 days. I was wondering why they were so close to what you were reporting. Thanks for explaining.

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK. So who in the northeast is having an abnormally wonderful day today?

Since this thread died I thought about not thinking about barometric pressure for awhile, but yesterday I felt good and today... wow! It's almost like being half human again :ph34r:

I checked the barometer and... wow again! 30.59. I have never seen it go so high. Humidity is only 29% and it's a cool 56. And no one today told me to "have a nice day." I'm having one anyway. Harumph! I hope you are too.

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OK. So who in the northeast is having an abnormally wonderful day today?

Since this thread died I thought about not thinking about barometric pressure for awhile, but yesterday I felt good and today... wow! It's almost like being half human again :ph34r:

I checked the barometer and... wow again! 30.59. I have never seen it go so high. Humidity is only 29% and it's a cool 56. And no one today told me to "have a nice day." I'm having one anyway. Harumph! I hope you are too.

Not I.

But if you are still looking for a cave in the northeast try Howes Cavern - http://www.howecaverns.com/live-in-the-cave

It is cool and barometric pressure is constant. I maintain it is the change in barometric pressure causing issues.

It is a lovely summer trip.

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Thank you all for writing about this! Of course I am intolerant to heat and cold, but I would put up with almost anything if only it would stop changing! Any rise or fall in barometric pressure makes my head feel like it's going to explode. It feels like when I used to dive, and would go to the bottom of the 14-foot pool. Except I feel it all day long. I call them "pressure headaches." Here's the weird thing: my dad gets them too, and he doesn't have POTS, or really anything "wrong" with him!

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Thanks Reen, but although the deepest part of Howe Caverns is 200 feet deep, you begin descending from 1,100 feet above sea level, so that won't do either.

I still maintain that higher pressure is better for us than low (especially if you also suffer from blood pooling), but that you are probably right too - a substantial 'change' in pressure in a short amount of time, whether up or down, worsens our symptoms, and a more consistent weather pattern is best. But if I could design my own weather, it would be cool, dry and high pressure, like we're having now.

Yogini - It may have been the salt too, but wasn't that amazing? It felt great to walk upstairs to my bedroom last night and then get undressed while still standing up. Yay! I think Reen and BelieverEM are right too though, because this High we're under now moved in gradually over a few days and not suddenly, but once it topped off at 30.60, what a feeling.

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Me too. It starts on the top of my head and spreads to the two sides of the back of my neck. At its worst it also spreads to behind my eyes and pounding in my left ear. And yes, it does indeed feel like a tightening rubber band. An ice pack is the only thing I've found that seems to help.

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I used to think this was a load, but now I have definately noticed a massive difference in my POTS symptoms right before a weather change. Infact I cant ever enjoy storms because I seem to have bad POTS flareups right before them. Interestingly sometimes it also flares up my Ank Spond rather than my POTS. As well as migraines, barometer changes tend to flare up autoimmune illnesses of an inflammatory nature like RA.

I wonder if POTS fits that description - an inflammatory disorder of the ganglia?

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Welcome to the crowd Rama!! Glad you've come over to the "dark side" and now believe us. :D LOL

I've noticed migraines flaring before storms for years. I noticed the change in my POTS symptoms before I had a diagnosis for. Maybe, as Simmy noted, since I live at 5700 feet to begin with, I'm more susceptible to barometric pressure changes but I've definitely noticed this and have been tracking the pressure regularly for a couple months. At least a 90% correlation with either a migraine or a huge flare in POTS symptoms...particularily in the breathing and cardiac symptoms, along with joint pain....and when I check the pressure, it's usually dropping like a rock.

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I wonder if POTS fits that description - an inflammatory disorder of the ganglia?

I think that inflammation could be one of the major factors in a lot of different illnesses - including cancer. If we could get our inflammation under control a lot of things might would get better. I'm trying Boswellia and Astaxanthin for that right now. Can't tell any difference from it so far.

By the way put me down for the weather change things. I can tell more in my body - it affects my pain levels and dexterity.

Issie

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