MS and Barometric Pressure

Hi, I am wondering if anyone else with Multiple Sclerosis feels that Barometric Changes in the weather affects their symptoms?

[essdipity]

Welcome to our MS forum, furpurs. I haven't heard of anyone speak of barometric pressure changes in terms of MS, though of course that doesn't mean others haven't wondered about it.

I see that you're a long-time MS patient, with lots of experience dealing with the serious or sometimes just odd reactions we get. We'd love to hear more of your story.

ess

[LoveMyBostons]

Yes! It always makes me feel worse. Maybe I'm just crazy but I have noticed this.

[Quixotic1]

Since I have both chronic peripheral and chronic central vertigo, I notice that a "drop" in the barometric pressure sends me reeling - maybe why I've been stumbling worse yesterday and today and a balmy sunny period turns back to our typical rainy spring.  

Others have mentioned this, with vertigo at least.

Quix

[jensequitur]

I have a friend with neurological problems, currently undiagnosed.  She went up to Denver, and found that her brain completely shut down - they had to go back down a couple of hundred feet before she felt better.

[lovemy6monkeys]

Oh goodness! I just looked at the weather for my town, and a storm is predicted for Friday (70% chance of rain both friday & saturday) and today the pressure is falling. Could this be why I've had slight feelings of vertigo the last couple days? Can I expect it to get worse over the week? I never would have even thought! Crazy!

~Jess

[Quixotic1]

Denver is high enough that she could have been having altitude sickness.   There really is less oxygen at a mile up.  Add that to a brain already struggling and I can that a brain shutting right down.

A falling barometric pressure doesn't affect the oxygen being delivered to the brain, but briefly causes the pressure inside the inner ear/brain to be higher than the outside.  Some people (with vertigo) also complain when the pressure goes the other way.  I haven't noticed that in me.

Q

[stella213]

This is crazy- I've been in my recliner all day wondering the same thing. Thank you for asking.

I was starting to feel a little better Sunday but yesterday and today was much worse. I can hardly stand up straight today much less walk. My fatigue is horrible today too - I'm having trouble holding my eyes open.

~ Stella

[jensequitur]

Ooh, altitude sickness - yeah, she could have been experiencing the 'Rocky Mountain High.'

I have a weird issue with pressure sensation in my ears, and I think I'm also affected by barometric pressure.  Now that I know it's a possibility, I'll keep an eye on the weather.

[furpers]

Hi folks,
Lovely to get your feedback. Temperature dropped dramatically here this morning and my neuropathic pain is so highly reduced so I know I've hit on something. I've had an air conditioner installed but also find my Arctic Vest invluable on humidnights.

[Khiba]

I can predict the weather by the way I feel! In Houston, the barometric pressure is all over the place sometimes many times a day. When it falls, i feel much worse, fatigue wise, pain wise, dizziness wise. When its high, i feel so much better!

[Quixotic1]

Khiba mentioned something important.  The barometric pressure goes slightly up and down all day.  So if you look at a barometer at one time and it is falling it is easy to think that is why you hurt that minute.  However, an hour later it bay blip upward and you might not see it.  You can go nuts with the up/down/up/down.  Try to find what the overall trend is before you start associating symptoms with it.

What most people respond to is the "trend" downward over many, many hours or days.

A possibly silly side note.  Mount St. Helens is literally in my back yard - about 40 miles north of me.  When it was active, a few years ago, I swear that my vertigo was worst during periods of highest seismic activity.

Quix

[cindred]

I am in Illinois.
I have been charting for about a year.
I find that when the B.P is about 30.0 or above, my symptoms, especially pain in feet and legs, goes WAY up.
Any drastic changes cause me lots of pain.
Cindy

[tiredaz]

I've not hadd been dx'd with ms, but with fibromyalgia for 25 yrs.  It's very clear to me that a change in pressure can make me very, very sick beginning approx. 24 hours before it begins.  I've been experiencing constant twitching in my left arm for the past 2 days as a low pressure moves through Arizona and have been feeling terrible with constant pain in my ribs and chest.

I live in Phoenix and a few weeks ago we drove to the Grand Canyon, which is quite and change in altitude.  The next morning I woke with the worst pain I can remember and with a migraine.  I've had that sort of thing happen before as we travel to Montana in the summer, but was never really sure whether it was altitude.  I've convinced now that it is definitely is.

I have very accuraate barometer and have charted this for many years.  I would love to have a real scientific answer for why it happens...I just know that it does!

Here's hoping for some good answers.  I've asked several doctors, but never get any real info!

Linda