How The Weather Affects Your Mind And Body

by Curtis

Air Pressure, summer, temperature, videos, winter

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sad-on-a-rainy-day.jpg I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that seasonal changes in the weather just plain hurt… physically.

That’s right, it doesn’t matter if we’re going into winter or coming out, it’s just the fact that a change is taking place that seems to stiffen my joints and raise my pain level to the point I’m just shuffling along.

Scientists seem to feel it’s the change in barometric pressure that creates an increase in pain for those suffering from arthritis or migraines.

For me, it isn’t so much an individual weather event that sets off a painful period. It’s more a time of year issue. When the temperatures start dropping in the fall, I start stiffening up. By the time winter has set in and much of the moisture has been freeze-dried out of the air, my mobility issues start to ease up.

This leads me to believe that humidity levels may also play a part in how the weather affects our bodies. 

The examples in this forum seem to reinforce my own experiences: Does Humidity Affect Your Pain Level?

How Weather Affects Mood

Another issue that is often reported is how some people experience negative mood changes when exposed to long periods of rainy weather.

This is especially true during periods of the year when the weather is described as chilly, gloomy, or dreary. Depressed, listless, and uninspired seem to be words that fit both the weather pattern and a person’s general outlook during such meteorological events.

VIDEO: See how a cold, dreary day affected one woman’s mood.

Some people have issues during periods of extreme heat. In fact, experiencing migraine headaches, or general crankiness is common in warmer climates.

How people react to different weather patterns has also been said to relate to the acidity or pH level of an individual’s blood. In fact, blood acidity is a very important factor in how you feel in different weather conditions.

We have found that a large part of the “weather problem” is related to the acidity of your blood. You may have never heard a discussion on this before. What we are talking about is your blood pH. Your blood pH is acidic if your pH is low, and alkaline if it is high.  Source

As a kid, the idea of being cooped up in the house on rainy days always set off a mood that was pretty much antisocial towards any one or thing that got in my way. To the contrary, whenever the sun was bright and shiny in a clear blue sky, the world was my oyster so to speak. With endless possibilities at hand, how could a person be anything less than upbeat and invigorated to take on what ever the day presented? Hardly seems like rocket science to me, seems more like simple common sense.

Still, researchers and scientists continue to investigate. They’ve even come up with a name for the phenomenon. It’s called Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The environment can affect our health in many ways. It only seems logical that pain, mood, and general well-being would all be affected by changes in the weather, as that is all part of the environment we live in.

 

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