Quite often you can hear the question: a headache due to the weather: what to do? Weather sensitivity is considered a fairly common phenomenon, and the degree of its manifestation can vary - from mild discomfort to unbearable pain. The situation is aggravated by the fact that headaches when the weather changes sometimes do not respond to ordinary painkillers. During the off-season, weather-sensitive people suffer greatly, often losing their ability to work. In order to cope with such an illness, you should find out its cause and begin to fight the underlying disease, and not with a symptom in the form of a headache.
A person's well-being is influenced by various natural factors. From a physiological point of view, this is a completely understandable phenomenon. The greatest impact on most people is exerted by atmospheric pressure, which affects the cardiovascular system, the tone of blood vessels, and blood pressure. These impacts can be of 2 main types:
Recently, much attention has been paid to research on the influence of electromagnetic disturbances. So-called magnetic storms intensify the manifestation of a number of chronic diseases, especially those of a cardiac nature. They have a significant effect on the nervous system, affecting nerve endings, resulting in the activation of hormonal regulators. Accordingly, the enzymatic process, tissue and steroid metabolism are enhanced, disrupting metabolism.
Increased wind can also affect a person’s well-being by irritating skin receptors. Changes in the humidity characteristics of the atmosphere lead to anomalies in heat exchange and sweating. Increased air humidity is accompanied by a decrease in the concentration of oxygen in it, which increases the manifestation of hypertension, cardiac ischemia, and atherosclerosis. Temperature fluctuations can aggravate inflammatory diseases.
Taking into account climatic factors that influence the question of why a headache occurs when the weather changes, the following 5 weather options are distinguished:
Stressful adaptation and disruption of biorhythms in weather-sensitive people (meteopaths) is expressed to varying degrees under the same weather load, and also has different severity of manifestation under different climatic anomalies. It is customary to distinguish between 3 degrees of sensitivity of meteorological factors:
Weather exposure provokes dysfunction of a number of body systems. The following reflexes to meteorological influences of different nature can be detected:
Severe weather disasters can cause meteosensitivity even in people who do not have any health problems. However, such phenomena occur in them in a mild form and are short-term in nature. Sensitivity to weather factors increases in people with sedentary work, who spend most of their time indoors, in the absence of physical activity, or engaged in mental activity. The risk group includes a person during the period of hormonal changes (teenagers during puberty, pregnant women and women during menopause) and endocrine disorders.
There are 3 main categories of people most susceptible to meteopathy:
A special group of meteopaths consists of people with meteoneurosis. This condition is caused by increased psychological sensitivity: well-being strongly depends on the influence of psychological factors. When their nerve receptors are irritated by the weather, their heads inevitably begin to hurt when the weather changes.
Meteopathy is often caused by the presence of diseases of internal organs, which means that its treatment requires timely treatment of underlying diseases. When meteorological complications occur, certain measures should be taken. In case of a pronounced spastic type reaction, it is necessary to reduce physical activity, avoid stressful situations, avoid the use of stimulating drinks (alcohol and strong coffee), and take sedatives - tincture of valerian or motherwort.
In case of significant headaches and deterioration in general health, you can use antispasmodic drugs (No-shpa, Papaverine), drugs that normalize blood flow (Cavinton, Curantil, Trental), painkillers (Ibuprofen, Brufen, Ortofen). It is best if the use of medications is agreed with your doctor. A good way to combat meteoropathy is therapeutic massage. As prescribed by the doctor, medications such as Vinpocetine, sodium benzoate, and Askofen are taken.
To reduce weather sensitivity, it is necessary to introduce an active lifestyle, physical exercise combined with frequent exposure to fresh air. Hardening procedures, carbon dioxide baths and baths with pine extracts, and mud baths are very helpful in combating headaches. If you are tormented by a decrease in blood pressure due to weather anomalies, then eleutherococcus, ginseng, tinctures of aralia and lemongrass are recommended.
A good help in eliminating the dependence of your well-being on the weather is a diet with an increased intake of vitamin C, calcium, potassium and iron. It is recommended to add fish, dairy products and vegetables to the diet, but meat, starches, sweets, canned food, and smoked foods should not be overused. People prone to hypertension during periods of weather anomalies need to reduce salt and liquid intake.
Weather headaches are common and affect people differently. It is not recommended to leave such a pathology to chance, but rather to determine the cause and take treatment measures.
Headache when the weather changes is a common occurrence in weather-sensitive people. Weather dependence is the body’s reaction to changing climatic conditions, occurring due to weakened immunity or under the influence of any chronic diseases.
How can we explain the dependence of some people on weather conditions? Is it possible to somehow reduce the impact of weather changes on a person’s condition?
People have long noticed the connection between well-being and weather conditions. Some people experience fluctuations in temperature and atmospheric pressure seriously, while for others they cause only a slight discomfort that does not affect the usual rhythm of life.
Women are more likely to respond to climate change . This is explained by their increased emotionality and impressionability. Children under 5 years of age are also sensitive to the slightest meteorological fluctuations. For the first time, weather dependence may appear during pregnancy: due to weakened immunity and increased stress on the body. Such susceptibility can be inherited.
It has been noticed that urban residents are more susceptible to weather sensitivity than rural ones: due to environmental pollution and stressful working conditions, their immune system more often fails, which can lead to unpleasant consequences.
People suffering from various diseases are predisposed to weather dependence:
There are many factors influencing the deterioration of health caused by weather changes.
Every year the number of weather-dependent people increases. Why do you get headaches when the weather changes? The connection between painful symptoms in the head and meteorological changes is not fully understood. It is believed that the occurrence of pain occurs due to a decrease in the level of oxygen in the blood vessels, which react by narrowing or expanding.
The mechanism for the appearance of pain symptoms is explained by an increase in cerebral vascular tone. The oscillatory mobility of blood vessels increases, receptors in their walls are excited, thereby increasing the sensitivity of nerve fibers to pain. The impulses are transmitted to the cerebral cortex, and a headache is formed.
Under the influence of changes in air temperature, the body's natural biorhythms can be upset, causing increased sensitivity in pain centers. Some weather-sensitive people react strongly to precipitation. But even healthy people can complain of deteriorating health when rain is foreshadowed. In addition to painful sensations in the head, dizziness, nausea, and aching limbs may occur. The condition is aggravated by intense work and lack of proper rest.
With weather dependence, changes in climate have a direct impact on human biological rhythms. What symptoms may appear:
Meteorological changes that cause most people to react:
There are three stages of weather dependence. In mild cases, the body reacts with weakness, changes in mood, and drowsiness. The average degree is characterized by fluctuations in blood pressure and rapid heartbeat. With severe weather sensitivity, a significant deterioration in health occurs:
Atmospheric pressure can affect a person's physical well-being. First of all, this affects the movement of blood through the vessels, their tone, as well as blood pressure. What other weather phenomena affect people, and how does this affect their well-being?
Windy weather can aggravate coronary heart disease and increase skin sensitivity. Air humidity is of great importance in the body's heat metabolism. Hypertensive patients are especially sensitive to changes in humidity: heart problems and shortness of breath bother them when the 85% mark is exceeded.
Some weather dependent people react sensitively to sudden temperature changes with a sudden exacerbation of any disease.
Measures that can be taken if your health worsens:
An increased reaction to weather changes, as well as headaches when the weather changes, is the result of a decrease in the body’s own defenses. Paying attention to your health and timely treatment of chronic diseases will help you avoid the negative consequences caused by climate change. A healthy lifestyle includes:
When treating meteosensitivity, it is necessary to find out exactly what phenomena provoke the deterioration of the condition. To do this, observe fluctuations in air temperature and atmospheric pressure and prepare for the occurrence of symptoms. During climate change it is necessary:
When examining the patient's condition, the degree of meteosensitivity is revealed, as well as the mechanism of the reaction to weather changes. For intense pain in the head, sedatives, painkillers, and medications can be prescribed to improve blood circulation in the vessels. For severe heart failure, it is recommended to take medications to promote blood flow to the brain and heart.
Weather sensitivity can occur in any person. Sometimes its appearance is provoked by reasons beyond our control, for example, the sudden onset of an illness that weakens the immune system, or life events that cause stress.
Weather can affect even completely healthy people. Therefore, it is necessary to have an idea of what causes headaches when changing meteorological conditions, and also to prepare in advance for their negative effects. This is precisely why there are weather services that predict climate change, which must be closely monitored.
A popular song by director and screenwriter Eldar Ryazanov optimistically states: “Nature has no bad weather . And all the delights that she gives us must be accepted exclusively with gratitude.
However, people with weather dependence do not agree with this truth, who react to any changes in weather conditions with a deterioration in their health, most often with pain and aching joints. Why do bones and joints ache when the weather changes?
You can often hear from those around you: “My bones are aching, which means it’s going to rain soon . According to WHO statistics, about half of the female population of the planet and a third of the male population are weather sensitive. But meteopathy (a painful dependence of well-being on the weather) is most susceptible to people with chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system, as well as those who have suffered injuries to bones and joints. Changes in the weather are always accurately “predicted” by patients with rheumatism, arthrosis, arthritis, and osteochondrosis. What are the reasons for such high sensitivity?
Often, “the bones feel” a decrease in atmospheric pressure, an increase in air humidity, as well as a sharp and sudden cold snap. People with a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis are the most weather-dependent. When the weather changes, not only the joint pain itself can intensify, but also the symptoms that accompany the disease. The fact is that in those suffering from rheumatism or arthritis, in addition to bones and joints, the nerve endings that penetrate them are damaged.
Therefore, they become especially sensitive to low temperatures or increased humidity. Due to the increase in the amount of water contained in the air, the nerve endings of the affected joints swell, and the drop in temperature causes pain. In addition, when atmospheric pressure changes, the pressure in the joint cavity changes along with it. In this case, the nerve endings of the cartilaginous surface of the damaged joint and the receptors of the joint capsule are irritated, so the person’s bones “ache.” Once the barometric pressure returns to normal, symptoms and pain subside.
A similar picture is most often observed in older people, whose osteo-articular system is subject to age-related degenerative changes. However, young people also sometimes become “weather predictors” as a result of joint deformation from previous injuries, osteochondrosis, which occurs in every third office worker, etc.
To ease the condition of your joints on days when the air temperature drops sharply, you should not warm up in the bathroom or visit the sauna. The increased humidity of such rooms will provoke even greater swelling of the nerve endings, as a result of which their sensitivity will increase. If it's frosty outside, it's better to visit a dry or infrared sauna. In the cold season and off-season, it is worth protecting problem areas from hypothermia; warming ointments, bandages and belts made of natural wool are also recommended.
It is worth resting and sleeping more - overwork only exacerbates meteopathic reactions. However, all these are measures that will help avoid unpleasant sensations, but do not solve the problem itself. Effective treatment must be aimed at the causes of the disease.
If, when weather conditions change, your joints in your arms or legs begin to ache or ache, the first thing you need to do is contact a rheumatologist. It is necessary to examine your joints, even if the pain only bothers you when the weather changes, and at other times you feel healthy.
It is quite possible that in the early stages, “weather” symptoms are the first and so far the only signs of the development of arthrosis or arthritis. If diagnosis is difficult, arthroscopy is performed, which will help identify the disease and establish the true cause of the painful reaction to changing weather.
Subsequent complex therapy will include relief from pain symptoms, as well as normalization of bone tissue metabolism and bone nutrition, for which chondroprotectors, vitamins, bioactive food supplements with elements of bone tissue and general nutrition correction are indicated. It is worth increasing the consumption of foods rich in glycine, which is necessary for the restoration of cartilage tissue: meat, fish, seafood, pearl barley, buckwheat.
A universal remedy for the prevention and treatment of meteotropic reactions of joints is the chondroprotector “Osteoartisy” with a complex mechanism of action. The active components included in its composition improve the nutrition of cartilage tissue, preventing its destruction. This drug not only weakens the manifestation of articular meteopathy, but is also very effective in early and uncomplicated forms of joint diseases.
In addition, try to lead a healthy lifestyle, and then your stronger body will easily help you get rid of weather dependence, and you will be able to gratefully accept “what nature has assigned you” - that is, any weather conditions.
Summary of the article
Headaches when the weather changes are usually felt by people with chronic diseases of the blood vessels, heart and blood, nervous system, as well as pregnant women. The reason for this reaction is a change in oxygen pressure in the air, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. Magnetic storms affect the blood system and the movement of red blood cells through the vessels. Weather sensitivity is a condition in which people feel headaches and dizziness, weakness, nausea, pain in joints and places of old injuries when the weather changes.
Headaches (cephalgia) when the weather changes occur for the following reasons:
Why do you get headaches when the weather changes? The brain is very sensitive to decreases in the partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere. If the condition of the circulatory system is unsatisfactory, a person’s meteosensitivity is aggravated, since the blood is poorly pumped and delivers this element to the tissues. Hypoxia, that is, oxygen starvation, leads to energy deficiency in nerve cells, which is manifested by headaches and irritability. The arrival of a cyclone can cause changes in arterial and increased intracranial pressure, dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
When a magnetic storm occurs, it affects the iron-containing cells of the body. These are mainly blood cells - red blood cells. Hemoglobin and lactoferrin contain iron, which is susceptible to magnetic storms, which can result in red blood cells sticking together in the vessel and causing blood clots to form. In this case, blood clots disrupt circulation, leading to discirculatory hypoxia and headache attacks. Some medications, such as oral contraceptives and steroid hormones, aggravate weather dependence.
A sharp change in temperature during the day can cause headaches and weakness due to the effect on vascular tone. At high temperatures, capillaries and arteries expand, and at low temperatures they narrow. If a person has impaired functioning of the autonomic nervous system or has an atherosclerotic process in the arteries, then adaptation occurs incorrectly. In this case, headaches, dizziness, and loss of consciousness are possible due to the weather.
Interesting! When the weather changes towards warming, people with meteosensitivity experience headaches due to increased hypoxia.
The work of the heart also changes with temperature changes. With an expanded capillary bed, the heart requires more effort to pump blood. People with hypertension are sensitive to temperature changes and heat. In hot weather, hypertensive patients often feel a pulsation in the top of the head, combined with a headache, and sometimes vomiting occurs, which does not bring relief. Sometimes a headache portends an impending vascular catastrophe - an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. This disease often occurs when the weather changes.
High temperatures increase the likelihood of developing migraines. A sharp cold snap is also stressful for the vascular and nervous system. At the same time, as a rule, the atmospheric pressure also changes, which cannot but affect the activity of the cardiovascular system.
For regular cephalgia due to changes in weather conditions, especially in combination with hypertension, it is useful to have a tonometer at home. A specialist who deals with headache problems - a neurologist - will prescribe all the necessary studies. The examination program usually includes rheoencephalography, echo and electrocardiography.
Headache from the weather: what to do? When prescribing treatment, the doctor takes into account the patient’s chronic diseases, which can lead to increased meteosensitivity in the form of headaches.
In case of cephalgia caused by hypertension or symptomatic hypertension, blood pressure-lowering drugs are used. If you are constantly taking antihypertensive drugs, the dose of one of the medications can be increased. If pain during weather changes is caused by essential and symptomatic hypertension, then the following help: beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, diuretics (furosemide, indapamide).
Headache when the weather changes: what to do if hypertension is complicated by an atherosclerotic process? It is recommended to enrich the diet with omega-3 fatty acids, vegetables and fruits. If a migraine is approaching when the weather changes, Amigrenin, Sandomigran, and painkillers (Analgin, Pentalgin) help. Coffee helps some people with hemicrania. Provocateurs of migraine attacks, such as red wine and cognac, cheeses, and seafood, should be excluded from the menu. For spasmodic pain in the head, vasodilators are used - Drotaverine, Papaverine.
If there are vegetative-vascular disorders, then contrast showers and breathing exercises are suitable for training the neuro-humoral system. Such drugs as ladasten, Rhodiola rosea, ginseng, Schisandra, and Leuzea will help improve the body's adaptive abilities in case of neurocirculatory dysfunction. They help regulate vascular tone, preventing headaches.
Osteochondrosis can cause meteosensitivity and brain hypoxia. If cephalalgia is caused by this disease, then methods such as manual massage and the use of the Kuznetsov applicator are effective. Physiotherapy and spa treatments are also recommended.
If you have a headache due to the weather, what should you do in case of a sudden attack of weather dependence, when headaches lead to nausea and vomiting? To eliminate these symptoms, prokinetics are used: Passazhix, Motilium, Cerucal. It is also necessary to remove the cause of nausea - high blood pressure or migraine. Sleep is the best cure for weakness.
If you are bothered by headaches when the weather changes, treatment is prescribed by a neurologist. In the presence of cardiovascular pathology leading to cephalgia, therapy is prescribed by a cardiologist.
There are weather-sensitive people. This means that when the weather changes, a person shows increased sensitivity to changes in environmental conditions - pressure, air humidity, wind speed or temperature.
There is even such a science as chronomedicine, which establishes a relationship between indicators of human health and fluctuations in the Earth’s electromagnetic field, solar activity, and phases of the Moon.
Chronomedicine is part of chronobiology, which studies cyclical changes in the biosphere in general. Man, as part of the biosphere, is dependent on weather, space, radiation, and this cannot be ignored.
Unfortunately, the natural phenomena occurring around us control not only our physiology, but can also cause the development of a number of diseases. First of all, the cardiovascular system responds to external stimuli, which is why vascular accidents - heart attacks and strokes - have a clearly defined seasonality.
Headache, or cephalgia, is generally a very common phenomenon. Anyone who has experienced this condition knows how painful and unbearable a headache can be. Weather-dependent people suffer from it much more often. Let's try to figure out what kind of cephalgia these are and how we can alleviate the suffering they cause.
It is interesting that headache when the weather changes is a condition that is far from universal and not monotonous. This is only a symptom; its causes, as well as diagnostic methods and treatment approaches will differ significantly depending on the clinical situation.
Any headache (hereinafter headache) can be primary or secondary. And if a person suffering from frequent cephalgia really wants to get rid of suffering, the question of the origin of headache is fundamental.
Primary hypertension is a group of independent diseases, each of which has a unique pathogenesis and a very specific clinical picture. The most well-known primary cephalgia are tension-type headache (TTH) and migraine. By the way, both of them can be “launched” when meteorological conditions change. Remember Bulgakov and his most famous novel. The scene where Pontius Pilate first meets Yeshua describes the procurator in the midst of his illness, which in the novel is called “hemicrania,” which is nothing more than a migraine. Being a doctor, Bulgakov very well, with medical precision, presents the reader with all the intricacies of this condition: “Yes... this is it... the terrible disease of hemicranium... from it... there is no salvation.”
Pilate's weather dependence can be found several pages below. Yeshua, in his monologue, addressing the hegemon, utters the following words: “... your torment will now end, your headache will pass... The thunderstorm will begin... later, in the evening.”
Migraine with its typical paroxysmal course, unbearable pain spreading to half of the head, lacrimation, photophobia and resistance to drug therapy is well known even in the non-medical community. But for some reason, tension headaches (TTH) are much less well known, although, according to statistics, this is the most common type of primary cephalgia.
In the pathogenesis of tension-type headache, tension in the muscles of the face and head (pericranial muscles) initially plays a leading role. Typically, the trigger moment is a person’s prolonged non-physiological position in a frozen position at a computer or car steering wheel.
True, in the future, in the absence of treatment, the disease becomes chronic, and the head hurts even when exposed to completely atypical factors at the onset of the disease: drinking alcohol, lack of sleep, as well as changes in weather conditions - humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed.
The prevalence of HDN in the population will only increase - in parallel with the urbanization of society, total computerization and motorization of the population.
But still, the absolute record for weather dependence and resulting headaches does not belong to migraine or tension-type headache. Secondary cephalgia in vascular diseases of the brain and hypertension takes the lead and occurs much more often when the weather changes. Such diseases include:
With any secondary cephalgia, the occurrence of pain is always realized through a change in cerebral vascular tone.
Have you ever wondered: what exactly hurts in your head? Maybe a bone? Or brain cells? In the vast majority of cases, the cause of pain impulses is vessels - veins or arteries. Their walls contain a very large number of receptors that respond to swelling or stretching or, conversely, spasm. Therefore, one of the immutable postulates of treating hypertension associated with weather changes is the use of drugs that act on vascular tone.
Why does vascular tone change? There are a lot of different and fanciful theories on this matter, but almost all of them boil down to one thing: the brain, registering a decrease in the oxygen content in the inhaled air, sends impulses to the vessels and changes their tone.
The oxygen content decreases in the following cases:
In hot weather, the mechanism of vascular involvement is slightly different: a person loses a lot of fluid, the blood thickens, the body, in order to “push” thick blood through the vessels of the brain, increases the pressure in them, while in hypertensive patients the overall pressure also increases. A hypertensive crisis, arterial spasm and headache occur.
Even if a person suffers from hypertension and has weather dependence, it is worth focusing on the symptoms for which he should definitely consult a doctor. As a rule, their development indicates the presence of severe complications requiring urgent hospital treatment. These include:
So, what to do if you have a headache associated with changing weather conditions?
If the patient is diagnosed with “migraine” or “tension headache”, and he is, in addition, dependent on changes in weather, then the treatment of a sudden episode of headache is quite standard: for migraine - analgesics (NSAIDs, less often opioids based on tramadol, drugs from the group of triptans), for tension-type headache - an analgesic plus a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant or an antiepileptic drug - depending on the stage of the disease.
Treatment of secondary headaches in weather-dependent people must obey certain rules. Firstly, since the brain sends signals to the vessels of the head when the weather changes, it is advisable to include in the treatment drugs that reduce its increased activity. For this purpose, medications that are completely different in strength and availability can be used, for example:
Secondly, if cephalgia occurs against the background of high blood pressure (i.e. we are dealing with an uncomplicated hypertensive crisis), it needs to be normalized. For this purpose, it is best to use captopril, physiotens, enalapril under the tongue. The use of phenigidine is undesirable: it dilates the arteries of the brain and can increase pain. Currently they are trying to give up clonidine.
Thirdly, most often the pain is associated with swelling of the vascular wall of the veins of the head. Therefore, for pain relief, drugs that reduce swelling and inflammation - a group of non-narcotic analgesics - can be used. These are basic drugs for the treatment of any type of headache. The most effective and fastest-acting:
Individual selection of other means may be required.
Fourthly, since it is the veins that swell most often, you need to use drugs from the group of venotonics. The most famous of them is caffeine. It is for this reason that analgesics are often combined with caffeine, and sometimes with sedatives. The most common combination medications include:
Combination therapy in weather-dependent people is more effective than the use of analgesics in their “pure” form.
It should be added that the basis of treatment for headaches associated with weather changes is treatment of the underlying disease. In the case of only symptomatic treatment of headache episodes, there is a high probability of their chronicity, including due to the unsystematic use of analgesics and the development of excessive headache. Weather dependence is always a good reason to see a doctor!
A change in climate does not go unnoticed for some people: those whose well-being directly depends on changes in weather are called weather dependent. Such people are characterized by a pathological reaction of the body to changes in atmospheric pressure. Sometimes the sensitivity is so high that a person can predict future natural disturbances several days in advance, more accurately than any barometer. Of course, the deterioration in well-being is not compensated by the ability to predict the weather with high accuracy; everyone wants to get rid of weather dependence or at least reduce its level.
Every third person experiences symptoms of weather sensitivity. They manifest themselves as malfunctions in the cardiovascular and autonomic systems; in rare cases, the nervous system is also affected. People who have a long-standing injury or joint disease also suffer from changing weather.
Healthy people usually easily tolerate climatic changes, but with a sharp change in weather conditions, even they often wonder why they suddenly have a headache, where the irritability comes from and why they feel very drowsy. Having chronic illnesses leaves little choice: up to 70% of people with chronic illnesses suffer greatly from bad weather. Among patients with cardiovascular diseases, the proportion of weather dependent is 50%.
Those people for whom stress is a constant companion in life should also carefully monitor the state of their own body. Neuroses, anxiety disorders and depression are also risk factors. Psychological studies have shown that people with an unbalanced (choleric) or weak nervous system (melancholic) are more likely to suffer from dependence on environmental conditions.
Rare walks in the fresh air, working in a stuffy room, and lack of sports and recreational activities contribute to the development of weather sensitivity. Often, dependence on bad weather develops during pregnancy and hormonal changes, during adolescence and with the development of diseases of the endocrine system.
The human body is capable of maintaining constant values of body temperature, blood pressure, level of metabolic processes and other indicators of the internal environment. These functions are realized by the autonomic nervous system, which includes two sections. The sympathetic department is responsible for increasing heart rate, temperature, pressure, and so on, while the parasympathetic department implements the exact opposite actions.
When coordination between parts of the autonomic nervous system is disrupted, a failure occurs in the mechanisms of adaptation to external conditions and vegetative-vascular dystonia develops, which is characterized by headaches, general malaise, changes in blood pressure and other unpleasant symptoms.
As a result of distortion of biological rhythms in the human body, temporary transformations occur, the intensity of which can be expressed in different ways. That is why there are three degrees of weather dependence:
The most violent reaction from the vegetative-vascular system is caused by a sharp change in atmospheric pressure. But this is far from the only type of weather that changes the quality of life in general:
Surprisingly, even simple wind can lead to a significant deterioration in overall health. Sudden gusts irritate skin receptors and provoke the onset of an attack of pain in people with coronary artery disease.
Fluctuations in air humidity levels also pose some danger. At high values (from 70%), people suffering from hypertension have headaches and heart pain.
Fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field in most cases are harbingers of weather changes; they are reflected in weather-sensitive people a couple of days before the meteorological conditions of the environment change. During magnetic storms, even healthy people experience headaches and increased nervousness, and the speed of reaction to external stimuli decreases.
Some simple techniques will help reduce the dependence of the body on weather conditions:
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and giving up bad habits, hardening the body are mandatory activities for those who want to reduce their level of weather dependence. You need to reduce your daily stress levels, eat right and stay hydrated. Try to walk as much as possible, this will completely eliminate the lack of oxygen. If negative manifestations when changing weather conditions increase over time or their intensity becomes unbearable, medical consultation and, possibly, drug therapy will be needed.
Headache when the weather changes bothers even those who consider themselves to be completely healthy people. The human body is a unique system that maintains the stability of the internal atmosphere, regardless of changes occurring from the outside. A healthy, full-fledged organism does not react to fluctuations in air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, or magnetic storms. However, there are very few completely healthy people today.
Disturbances in the functioning of the body make a person weather dependent. People with chronic pathologies experience relapses. Weather dependence often makes itself felt with bad mood, decreased ability to work, and headaches. Headache that occurs when the weather changes is a common complaint of weather-sensitive patients.
Why do I get headaches when the weather changes? If you believe the statistics, the percentage of weather-dependent patients is growing endlessly. But the mechanism for the appearance of headaches when the weather changes has not yet been fully studied. It has been found that changes in atmospheric pressure affect the level of oxygen in the blood. The vessels located in the brain react by narrowing or dilating, which causes headaches. Many people get headaches before rain because the pressure in the atmosphere decreases.
Moreover, temperature changes affect the disruption of neurotransmitters in the brain. With age, the manifestation of meteosensitivity usually increases. This is due to the protective properties of the body and the presence of chronic diseases.
In autumn and winter, poor health can bother even the healthiest people who have a slightly reduced immune system.
Gloomy weather, dampness, rains have a negative impact on the body and it needs more rest. But if a person continues to work hard, his biorhythms are disrupted. In this case, frequent headaches and nausea are observed, which is typical for residents of large cities.
Children tend to be weather sensitive, especially during the full moon. It has been proven that the moon has a special effect on people.
Climatologists have found out why people’s well-being changes due to weather changes and have established five main types of weather that affect the body:
It is worth emphasizing that the strong impact is due to the contrast of weather phenomena, which reduces working capacity, deteriorates health, complicating the course of diseases.
Most often, changes in people’s well-being occur under non-standard climatic conditions. For some patients, weather changes are as negatively impacted as a serious illness. It has been revealed that people with a weak nervous system are prone to weather dependence; in other words, these are people with a sensitive psyche, distinguished from others by suspiciousness, vulnerability, and melancholicity. It was also found that weather-dependent people often inherit their special “status”.
What to do if you get a headache when the weather changes? This phenomenon should not be ignored, the treatment of which should be comprehensive. Initially, it’s worth thinking about what’s wrong in the body, what chronic diseases there are, and treating them rather than fighting the symptoms. People who feel the weather should look at forecasts and know what the weather will be like in their area in advance. Based on this information, the patient decides to use certain medications that were prescribed to him by the doctor.
In the warm season, experts recommend walking for a long time in the fresh air, taking tonics, doing gymnastics, and drinking green tea. On an individual basis, the patient is prescribed different massage sessions and drug therapy.
If you have spastic reactions, you need to reduce physical activity, eliminate stress, and drink sedatives.
If the clinical symptoms are pronounced, take strong analgesics that stimulate brain blood flow and relieve headaches. You should take sleeping pills only if the weather causes sleep disturbance or overexcitation of the nervous system.
It is useful for practically healthy people to temper their bodies, visit baths and saunas, and do gymnastic exercises. Despite their simplicity, these actions turn out to be very effective.
People who tolerate warming very poorly need to walk a lot, run, do breathing exercises, and douse them with cold water. To better withstand weather changes, experts advise drinking herbal decoctions and playing sports.
People suffering from low blood pressure need to take a multivitamin. Eleutherococcus tinctures, teas with lemon, and products containing ascorbic acid are very useful. If you have hypertension, you should reduce your fluid and salt intake when weather conditions change.
Between seasons the weather is very unpredictable and changeable. If you suffer from headaches because of this, you should not self-medicate, but come to a specialist. Keep a headache notebook and note down the days when you have a headache and what exactly caused it. All this will help the doctor analyze your health status and choose an effective treatment method.