Weather Pains: What is Meteoropathy?

Weather Pains: What is Meteoropathy?

Weather Pains: What Is Meteoropathy?

METEOAGENT

This article examines meteoropathy—also known as weather pains—a condition where the human body reacts painfully or negatively to changes in weather.

We explore the history of meteoropathy, its various symptoms and types, and identify who is most susceptible to this condition. The article explains how weather pains develop and methods for prevention.

The discussion also covers scientific research on meteoropathy, including its diagnosis and treatment options. The article begins with a callout section featuring an app designed for weather-sensitive individuals.

What are the Weather Pains

Weather pains (or meteoropathy) – a painful or negative bodily reaction to weather changes, occurring when congenital or acquired diseases impair the body's ability to adapt to these changes

Severe weather conditions can worsen symptoms for people with mental illnesses [1234].

During these periods, weather-sensitive individuals may experience headaches and dizziness [56], blood pressure fluctuations [7], increased aggression [8], and elevated heart rates [4].

Studies across multiple countries have shown that people with anxiety [9], depression [3], schizophrenia [1011], and bipolar disorder [121314] are especially sensitive to weather changes. Additionally, McWilliams et al. found that barometric pressure correlates with hospital admissions for manic episodes [15].

Yes, the human body has the ability to adapt to any weather conditions!

Several meteorological factors can affect well-being, including temperature extremes, precipitation, solar flares (geomagnetic activity or solar storms), and changes in humidity or barometric pressure.

Research shows that weather-sensitive people may experience fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure, which can reduce oxygen flow to the brain. This leads to headaches, weakness, apathy, and other discomfort.

Pain often develops in bones and joints, particularly in areas with previous fractures, scars, or skin injuries.

The cause is weather-related: skin, joints, and bones—which shift minutely—must adapt to changes in ambient humidity. Areas with altered tissue or bone structure from injuries or fractures are especially sensitive to these changes.

These symptoms represent your body's natural response as it works to adapt to changing weather conditions.

image

History of meteoropathy (weather pains)

Many people believe weather pains are only a modern affliction caused by poor ecology, sedentary lifestyles, and constant stress—but this isn't true!

As far back as 400 BC, people recognized weather sensitivity and its connection to health issues.

The ancient Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates documented weather pain symptoms in his scientific works, cautioning healers:

"Be especially careful during weather changes—avoid bloodletting, cauterization, and surgical procedures during these periods."

The ancient Greek physician Diocles also contributed to bioclimatology, with surviving works showing how he divided the year into six periods and prescribed specific lifestyle recommendations for each.

The ancient Germans observed that joint and muscle pain increased during wet, cold weather—leading them to coin the term "weather pains."

Tibetan healers went further, attributing virtually all ailments to weather changes.

Modern scientific studies continue to confirm that wind patterns and atmospheric front movements can significantly influence human well-being.

Scientific research on weather pains

An updated list of scientific and medical research on weather pains and meteoropathy.

Who is prone to weather pains?

People with congenital or acquired health conditions are most likely to experience weather-related discomfort.

This particularly affects those with circulatory system, blood vessel, and heart problems—especially conditions linked to stress and sedentary lifestyles.

Weather sensitivity commonly affects:

  • people with respiratory conditions and asthma
  • individuals with atherosclerosis
  • those suffering from joint pain or previous bone fractures
  • people with nervous system disorders
image

People with these conditions have weakened bodies that expend extra energy trying to adapt.

This results in physical and mental discomfort that appears during or before sudden weather changes.

Weather sensitivity commonly occurs in people with vegetative-vascular dystonia (VVD), nervous system imbalances, chronic diseases, or previous physical injuries.

Up to 35% of the world's population is sensitive to weather changes, including about 70% of those with cardiovascular disease.

Many historical figures experienced "under the weather" feelings and meteoropathy, including Napoleon, Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci, Byron, and Columbus. In his work "The Experience of Studying the Weather," Goethe—the renowned poet, statesman, and thinker—observed that high barometric pressure made work easier than low pressure.

Symptoms & Types of Weather Pains (Meteoropathy)

Types of weather pains (meteoropathy)

Usually, weather-dependent people feel variable (changeable, unstable) symptoms with the same picture of patterns, which can be conditionally divided into five main types:

  • Cerebral cephalalgia (headaches), dizziness, ringing in the ears, noise in the head, darkening of the eyes.
  • Cardiac palpitations, shortness of breath, discomfort and heaviness in the region of the heart
  • Mixed heart and brain symptoms combined
  • Asthenoneurotic nervousness, irritability, sleeplessness at night, sleepiness during the day, surges in blood pressure, depressed and anxious mood
  • Uncertain arthralgia (joint pain), myalgia (muscle pain) without clear localization, feeling unwell

Stages of weather pains (meteoropathy)

According to the severity of symptoms, meteoropathy can be divided into three stages:

  1. Mild - symptoms are barely noticeable, with unexplained mood changes
  2. Medium - discomfort becomes noticeable, with changes in blood pressure, increased heart rate, and shortness of breath
  3. Severe (critical) - characterized by limited bodily functions, dizziness, digestive problems, migraines, and flare-ups of chronic conditions

Weather changes particularly affect people with cardiovascular diseases—a sudden shift in weather can trigger severe vasospasm, potentially leading to hypertensive crisis, myocardial infarction, or ischemic stroke!

During cyclones, statistics show that the number of myocardial infarction cases doubles!

Important! These complications typically require immediate emergency medical care to prevent severe consequences, including death.

If you experience these symptoms – seek medical help immediately!

Main symptoms of weather pains (meteoropathy)

Let's examine the key symptoms of weather pains in detail:

Weather Headaches. These are among the most common symptoms in weather-sensitive people of all ages, typically occurring before or during sudden weather changes.

Weather Headache

Weather Headaches: How Rain and Barometric Pressure Affect HealthWeather Headaches: How Rain and Barometric Pressure Affect Health

Headaches occur when blood vessels experience vasospasms—unable to adjust quickly to sudden weather changes—or when blood congests in the brain's veins. The pain typically centers in the temples or back of the head and may include dizziness and nausea.

Drowsiness, weakness, and dizziness commonly occur before rainfall (known as rain pains). During these times, barometric pressure and oxygen levels drop, causing the body to conserve energy. These symptoms usually resolve quickly as the body adapts.

Arterial hypertension frequently affects elderly people and those with chronic cardiovascular conditions during an anticyclone—when the barometric pressure rises and affects blood pressure.

The most significant blood pressure fluctuations occur when an anticyclone brings cold weather. High humidity with strong winds can lead to body hypothermia, causing vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels) in the face and limbs, potentially raising blood pressure.

Joint, bone, muscle and body pain typically coincides with barometric pressure changes, particularly affecting people who are overweight or have previous injuries.

Joint Pain When It Rains: Causes, Symptoms, and TreatmentJoint Pain When It Rains: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

How Changes in Weather Affect Joint Pain

Fluctuations in barometric pressure affect joints by changing the pressure within them (joints contain synovial fluid) and irritating nerve endings in cartilage tissue and receptors. These changes cause pain, burning sensations, and discomfort in the joints.

When these symptoms occur during weather changes, they may indicate degenerative processes in the joint cartilage, which can signal several serious conditions, such as:

  • arthrosis - deterioration of joint surfaces and cartilage. Symptoms include crunching sounds, pain, and limited mobility due to contracture (muscle contractions), potentially leading to slight shortening of legs or arms;
  • arthritis - inflammatory joint conditions with various causes. Symptoms include general discomfort that worsens late at night and early morning, localized cold spots, swelling, stiffness, and restricted joint movement;
  • sciatica - inflammation and compression of spinal nerve roots. Causes pain along affected nerve pathways, altered sensation, and occasional movement difficulties;
  • osteochondrosis - a spinal condition where intervertebral discs, vertebrae, joints, and ligaments gradually lose their normal function

Important! Weather pain symptoms often occur alongside vascular, heart, and spine conditions. Never ignore these symptoms—consult a doctor for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan!

Apathy, bad temper, and aggressiveness during weather changes are most common in people with high receptor sensitivity.

This condition—when weather changes severely impact the mental state of highly sensitive people—is officially recognized as a type of neurotic disorder called meteoneurosis.

The decline in well-being stems primarily from psychological factors and a person's current mental state rather than the weather changes themselves.

Simply put, people prone to this mindset tend to view situations negatively, allowing their health and mood to become dependent on the weather outside their window.

How do weather pains appear?

The human body's response system is fascinating—nerve receptors act like antennas, detecting even subtle changes in weather conditions.

These receptors send signals to the brain and vegetative-vascular system, which then puts other body systems on "high alert" to adapt to the changing weather conditions.

image

For example, barometric pressure causes a reaction of our blood vessels: they can expand or, conversely, narrow, which can adversely affect blood circulation in the body, in particular, the oxygen supply to the brain. Thus, the brain does not receive energy for normal functioning. And hence, there are headaches, dizziness, weakness, apathy, and depressed mood.

A weak body is vulnerable to other ailments. Some people have digestive disorders, some have blurred vision, and others feel pain in the joints or broken bones.

There is also an explanation of pain in the broken bones. It happens for one simple reason - after the fracture, the structure of the bone changes. During humidity or barometric pressure changes, the body tries to adapt to them by a slight curvature of all the bones in the body. As the places of fractures are denser and less flexible, nagging pain appears in these places.

And what about healthy people, whose body adaptation mechanisms work well, most often they do not react to any weather changes or experience insignificant sensations.

Certainly , our body responds to weather changes. Our bones and joints work like "balloons" - they compress in response to higher barometric pressure and expand to lower barometric pressure – Doc. Win Chang, FAAOS ShoulderSphere

When and why weather pains appear

The weather pains occur more frequently during periods of barometric pressure drops. Human blood vessels contain baroreceptors - a special type of nerve endings which respond to fluctuations in barometric pressure and send signals to the brain that blood pressure needs to be adjusted due to these changes.

This mechanism is often disrupted among people with cardiovascular diseases or arthritis , that’s why there are spikes in blood pressure, accompanied by dizziness, irregular heart rhythms, and severe joint pain.

Changes in geomagnetic activity (solar flares) can affect the blood quality - high solar and geomagnetic activity contributes to an increase in blood viscosity, and lower one - to its liquefaction.

Thicker blood moves harder through the vessels, resulting in an increase in blood pressure , and there is a risk of blood clots and oxygen starvation of internal organs here.

Excessive liquid blood is dangerous because of the bleeding development, especially if there are problems with the tone of the walls of blood vessels.

Humidity changes. Changes in air humidity adversely affect people with chronic respiratory diseases.

High air humidity increases the risk of tissue swelling, asthma attacks and bronchospasms. Low humidity creates a fertile ground to get an acute respiratory infection - thick, viscous, difficult-to-separate sputum which accumulates pathogens forms in the bronchi.

Humidity also affects people with fractures or injuries of the limbs, which begin to hurt (pain ranging from nagging to stabbing , depending on the time after the injury) due to changes in the tissue or bone structure caused by this very humidity .

Changes in air temperature. Daily average temperature fluctuations in the range of 8 - 10 degrees can provoke sudden emissions of histamine - the main "activator" of allergic reactions.

With a sharp rise in temperature, the oxygen content in the air decreases significantly, which can cause general malaise and severe drowsiness and lethargy, while low temperatures can provoke an exacerbation of infectious and inflammatory processes.

Diagnostics & Treatment of Weather Pains

image

As the weather pains most often appear when people have chronic diseases, there is no specific treatment for it. The therapy is carried out in relation to existing diseases to achieve stable remission and prevent complications.

For the diagnosis and treatment, first of all, it is necessary to consult a therapist.

Due to the peculiarities of meteoropathy syndrome, treatment for weather pains comes down to visiting a doctor and a thorough examination of the existing and acquired diseases of the patient's body: cardiovascular system disorders, nervous diseases, injuries or other symptoms that are aggravated by weather changes.

Due to the peculiarities of meteoropathy syndrome, treatment for weather pain comes down to visiting a doctor and a thorough study of the existing and acquired diseases of the patient's body: disorders of the cardiovascular system, nervous diseases, injuries or other symptoms that are aggravated by weather changes.

Timely diagnosis and treatment of each symptom individually (or in combination, as the doctor decides) normalizes the body and its organs, which allows it to more easily and quickly adapt to weather changes, spending less energy on it and not provoking the very painful sensations.

At the same time, an important part of the treatment for meteoropathy consists of its prevention.

The main ways to prevent weather pains

Prevention of weather pains is associated with the compliance with the number of simple recommendations that doctors have been sharing for hundreds of years (but which most people consciously ignore).

Follow a healthy lifestyle:

  • Do flexibility exercises throughout the day. This will keep your blood vessels and muscles in shape, and provide better circulation of blood through the body.
  • Sleep for at least 7-8 hours. Healthy sleep is a key to a healthy brain.
  • Consume fluid at least 0,2-0,4 gal per day. Water is essential for the normal functioning of the WHOLE organism. Try to drink no more than 1-2 cups of coffee a day and, of course, minimize the consumption of any alcohol.
  • Eat right. Food gives energy to every cell in our body. Pay attention to the composition of the food you eat daily, try to maintain a diet rich in natural vitamins and components, but not substitutes and preservatives.
  • Follow a diet, exclude greasy protein foods, fried, smoked, and spicy foods, semi-finished products, adding more foods that contain vitamin E and omega acids, such as walnuts, broccoli, brussels sprouts, bell peppers, salmon, cod, tuna.
  • Give up bad habits. Understand a simple thing - your body is ALREADY susceptible to negative factors in the form of bad ecology and stress every day, which slowly, but harms it. It is wasting energy, which is getting less and less as you get older. Adding smoking, drinking alcohol and other bad habits will only speed up the moment when your body says "I'm finally tired."
  • Minimize the adverse impact of weather factors on your body. Stay at home during bad weather if possible, do not burden yourself with serious tasks on such days, keep your feet and neck warm, avoid cold drafts, etc.

Massage during weather pains. Do self-massage, which will help to improve blood circulation and increase the body's resistance and ease weather pains:

  • Take a comfortable, relaxed sitting or lying position, massage one hand with the other, stretch them, then press on opposite sides of the palm, firmly squeeze and then loosen your fingers, rub your hands on all sides. Session time: 3-5 minutes.
  • Firmly get around the left wrist with your right hand, press, move your right hand from the wrist towards the elbow and shoulder, then do the same in the opposite direction. Repeat the exercise 10-12 times with each hand.
  • Wrap your forehead with your fingers, lightly press, massage your face in a wave-like and circular motion down to the chin, bypassing the nose, then massage upwards to the ears and back of the head. Session time - 3-5 minutes.
  • Put the right palm on the left side of the chest, press lightly and massage your body diagonally to the right thigh in circular motions . Do the same with the other hand, from the right chest to the left thigh. Repeat the exercise, sitting or lying down, 9-10 times at a slow pace. Then, gently tingling , stretch the area of the jugular foramen , rich in arterial vessels that provide general blood flow. Massaging this zone helps with asthma, bronchitis, and acute respiratory infections caused by changes in weather or acclimatization.
  • Put both hands on your right thigh, press your fingers tightly, as if wrapping them around the leg, massage the skin and muscles towards the shin , then repeat the action in the opposite direction. Repeat the exercise 8-10 times. Then do the same with the left leg. This massage technique helps to increase joint mobility, normalize blood circulation in the tissues of the lower limbs , remove puffiness and improve well-being.
  • With your legs slightly bent, put your hands on your kneecaps, make circular movements clockwise and then counterclockwise. If this exercise is done correctly, the skin should turn slightly red. This self-massage technique helps to relieve joint pain caused by changing weather. Session time: 3 - 5 minutes.
  • Warm up your palms, wrap them around the back of the neck in the trapezius area , hold for 5 seconds, move stroking from the head to the shoulders, warm up the neck zone, then pick up the pace and increase the pressure. Session time: 3 - 5 minutes.
  • Fix the thumbs on the trapezius muscles, put the rest of the fingers on the neck. Do circular motions with your thumbs on either side of the spine upwards and back. Use the edges of your hands , to hit the trapezius muscle , finish the exercise by stroking for 5 - 7 times.

The stimulation of biologically active points (acupoints) that are located on the auricles is also quite effective for the treatment of weather sensitivity:

  1. Cover your ears with your palms so that your fingers are on the back of your head, press on your ears with your palms, while tapping your fingers on the back of your head, then increase the pressure on your ears, while pressing your fingertips on the back of your head. This self-massage technique helps with a breakdown, attention deficit disorders and irritability.
  2. Carefully (simultaneously or alternately) stretch and warm up the auricles with your fingers - start at the edge of the ear, then slowly pull the lobes down and to the sides. Stimulation of these zones has a beneficial effect on the general tone of the body, helps to strengthen the immune system, and reduces the symptoms of weather pains.
  3. Use your fingers to massage the auricles in different directions until they become warm.

ATTENTION! After any massage session, avoid hypothermia not to catch a cold, and not to reduce the efficiency of the procedure!

Conclusion

As you can see, with the correct approach, weather pains can be taken under control and lived with them, gradually getting rid of the symptoms and diseases that are the origin of all the unpleasant sensations during the changing weather.

Generally speaking, and no matter how trite it may sound, follow a healthy way of life ! Millions of doctors around the world advise us to strengthen our health , do morning exercises, get enough sleep, eat right and give up bad habits, but only a few people actually follow these simple recommendations, forgetting that everything of genius is simple!

And we remind you that if your body acutely reacts to weather changes, then be sure to consult a doctor who will choose the right therapy to treat existing diseases in order to avoid their transition to chronic forms. And let your mood and well-being be excellent in any weather!

icon
Control your weather-related pains:

METEOAGENT – is a mobile app for weather-sensitive people who suffer from weather-related symptoms (weather-related pain)

Download for iOS

Download for Android

image
  • Monitor weather changes
  • Manage your weather-related symptoms
  • Adapt to weather changes
It's time to harness weather forecasting technology to protect your health