Snow, sleet, and rain bring pain, pain, and more pain! If you think that weather affects how you feel, you'd be correct. I noticed the first day of snow brought horrible chest pains. I thought I was having a heart attacked about three hours before it snowed, but my husband remembered the same thing happening last year and reminded me that we should wait before going to the hospital. I'm glad he did, because that would have been embarrassing! I looked back at my medical history, and every winter I went to the emergency room for severe chest pain and shortness of breath. I've been diagnosed with costochondritis, and get chest pain regularly, but the pain in the winter is so horrible that it brings tears to my eyes. It has been proven that lower barometric pressure increases inflammation, causing immobility and pain.
If you're like me, then this just mean more inflammation, immobility and pain. The pain can be horrible. Looking back, I also noticed that I can get through most of the year without any serious pain killers, but in the winter I need vicodin or percocet to function at least 2 days out of the week. When the barometric pressure rises, the pain goes back to the usual achiness and random stabbing. The lower barometric pressure feels more like stabbing and then the knife being twisted back and forth for hours. Below is a link to an awesome article about barometric pressure and it's effects on muscles and joints.
