The human barometer

seriously... I think I should be a weather forcaster. Every single time it rains, I get a headache! Usually about 3 hours before it starts the headache starts creepin up! If it's gonna snow, my joints and back feel like I got run over by a freakin' train! I don't need no darn schooling to predict the weather I can just listen to my body and do it and I;d probably be a hell of a lot more accurate than these goofballs on TV!

Anyone else have this happen to them? What causes it? It's really annoying!

reply to post by undiscoveredsoul


So your joints ache when it's cold, and you get headaches in pressure changes. How different...

I used to get migrane headaches all the time. Now I hardly ever get them; I have no idea what changed. This was from my childhood through my 20s maybe. Bad weather would usually bring on the migranes, they were terrible. I couldn't think, con't do anything, and nothing could be done but to ride it out.

Headaches are still largely mysterious, I think. There isn't much decent medical consensus on what causes them, how to classify them, and so forth. There seem to be at least a few different types of headaches...migranes are a specific subtype, for example. There seems to be a wide varience among different people. I think I've read about weather-related trouble and sinuses in connection with headaches in some people, but I'm not sure and I'm certainly no doctor. A relative of mine who also suffered from migranes was able to completely eliminate them after he cut out all caffeine consumption. Good luck!

Originally posted by GodForbid
reply to post by undiscoveredsoul

 

So your joints ache when it's cold, and you get headaches in pressure changes. How different...

ok, smartypants! I know it happens to others sometimes, I guess I'm just complaining cause I feel like crap-on-a-stick today! humor me mmmkay?

reply to post by silent thunder


caffeine....my head hurts so bad right now I just ran up to the store and got a large xtreme caffeine coffee. I KNOW I'm a caffeine addict. but I think this headache is sinus too so I'm poppin a couple of cold tabs!

wow, I'm not gonna get into trouble for this totally random thread am I? I mean it is in the chit chat section afterall..

Originally posted by undiscoveredsoul
reply to post by silent thunder

 

caffeine....my head hurts so bad right now I just ran up to the store and got a large xtreme caffeine coffee. I KNOW I'm a caffeine addict. but I think this headache is sinus too so I'm poppin a couple of cold tabs!

wow, I'm not gonna get into trouble for this totally random thread am I? I mean it is in the chit chat section afterall..

I don't know what you mean by "trouble" but I think you had better ask a competent health professional these kinds of questions, rather than strangers on the internet. Just my two cents for what little its worth.

reply to post by silent thunder


ermm.... ok? I'm not asking for medical advice, sorry if it seemed that way. I was basically just venting, whining, you know, in hopes that there might be others around who could sympathize with me?

and what I meant by trouble is, with the MODS I'm not sure what your allowed to post about and not over here but seeing as it's off topic and general chit chat im thinking anything within reason goes?

reply to post by undiscoveredsoul


Oh, OK, gotcha, sorry, don't mind me. As far as I know I think you can go ahead and vent away here as long as you are within the board terms and conditions. As for sympathy, yes I certainly can sympathize with you after a couple of decades of suffering from migranes. Like I said, they mostly have gone away and I only very rarely get them now, so perhaps that's the hopeful side to keep in mind, that for some reason or other it might just eventually go away.

Do you have anything particular you do to change the environment around you (lights, heat, humidity, etc.) that helps? Or is it too severe for that?

Originally posted by silent thunder
reply to post by undiscoveredsoul

 

Oh, OK, gotcha, sorry, don't mind me. As far as I know I think you can go ahead and vent away here as long as you are within the board terms and conditions. As for sympathy, yes I certainly can sympathize with you after a couple of decades of suffering from migranes. Like I said, they mostly have gone away and I only very rarely get them now, so perhaps that's the hopeful side to keep in mind, that for some reason or other it might just eventually go away.

Do you have anything particular you do to change the environment around you (lights, heat, humidity, etc.) that helps? Or is it too severe for that?

edit on 2/25/11 by silent thunder because: (no reason given)

Glad we're ont he saem page now! LOL SOmetime it's hard to discern exactly what someone means here on the good old net without body language and all!

I don't think I have a migraine today (yet) as far as I can tell this one is just weather related. It rained all night and just about 15 minutes ago changed over to sleet/freezing rain and now its snowing it's....... off!

When I do get a migraine I need heat (like a heating pad) total darkness and SILENCE! which is completely unattainable in my house since I have a 15 yo and a 10 yo lol woe is me!

I havent actually asked my doctor about treating for migraines cause I only really get them once a month.... im a woman... you figure it out. That and I hear too much about long term side efffects of migriane meds. I tend to get more regular headaches than migraines.


have you ever taken perscription pills for headaches? if so what ones and did they work or make you freak out of have any weirdness?


edited to add: i'm also very bored this morning and looking for some light chit chat and since i dont have 200 posts yet im stuck HERE

Absolutely, OP!

I have what I affectionately call a 'barometer knee'. It started aching last night, after several hours of rain here in Southern Indiana...and this morning, wouldn't ya know, there's a dusting of snow on the ground.

reply to post by undiscoveredsoul


Haha yeah I was only kidding, when I read back on it just now I realise it didn't look as much of a joke as I'd meant it.

Personally I can totally relate to you with your headaches, I went through like 2 years of having headaches like 5 days of the week. Not often migraines but sometimes.

It's funny because you wanna know how I stopped them? I stopped drinking caffeine! and made a few lifestyle changes.

I went to the doctors and they took blood tests but they said they didn't find any problems and didn't know why I was getting so many tension headaches. They never offered me any more advise, I found it out on my own.

When I started my firefighter training it changed the way I was living. It was such dehydrating physical work that it changed my lifestyle completely. Drinking caffeine was a no-go because of the dehydration, so drinking tonnes of water (more than you would drink normally) was needed, also because of all the physical work I ate better, and because of the exercise I felt more healthy anyway. I was active anyway but not enough.

So, there's your start, try to get as much physical exercise as possible, drink loads of water and eat as healthily as possible.

As for caffeine, this is how I kicked it.

I drank one cup of coffee in the morning and drank a glass of water straight afterwards, and the only withdrawal effects were added headaches which last a few weeks.

For normal headaches usually taking 2 paracetamol would work an hour later, and if not you can take 2 ibuprofen with them and if it's a really sever headache, you can use neurofen plus with the paracetamol as long as you haven't had the ibuprofen (the neurofen is mostly ibuprofen but has codeine as well).

Just be sure not to take the same pills for more than three days in a row, because that causes headaches on it's own. You can try taking paracetamol for three days, then ibuprofen for three days, then back to the paracetamol.

After a couple of weeks you should be able to stop taking any medication, and a week or so after that your headaches from the caffeine should have gone.

It'll take a couple of months for the lifestyle changes to work but stick with it because it does!

GodForbid

Oh forgot to mention, a regular sleep pattern is important too, and stop trying to associate your headaches with the weather, it's more likely just a coincidence and is actually more related to lifestlye (and caffeine)

reply to post by GodForbid


I have never heard of those medicines! Ibuprofen yes but the others no, are they perscription?

I love my caffeine! but, i know that caffeine is a headache trigger or rather lack of is. I have tried before to go without my morning coffee but it just doesn't work for me! I am going to write down hose two medicines you mentioned though and ask my doctor then maybe I can stop the caffeine addiction I have!

reply to post by undiscoveredsoul


Neurofen plus is maybe just a UK thing. It's not prescription no, you could try co-codamol which is paracetamol and codeine, that's an over-the-counter pain killer. Though co-codamol is paracetamol and codeine so don't take those if you've already have paracetamol, but it's fine to take with ibuprofen.

Having a morning coffee is fine, nothing wrong with that. Moderation is key though, so just have the one a day.

Oh and I'm surprised you've never heard of paracetamol! Where have you been? It's the most common pain killer, and no not prescription.

Codeine is a prescription drug, but is added in small doses into non-perscription pain killers such as co-codamol.

You can take
1000mg (2 tablets) of paracetamol
400mg (2 tablets) of ibuprofen
60mg (2 tablets) of codeine
all at the same time to relieve severe pain though should only be used for severe pain. Most over the counter codeine medications contain 8-13mg of codeine per tablet. Codeine is a dangerously addictive drug, so should not be used for more than 3 days in a row, and in low quantities will be fine.

Don't rely on pain relief though, that's a common mistake, rather focus on lifestyle changes, water is key. And taking pain killers for too long causes headaches on it's own, so avoid prolonged use.

paracetamol and ibuprofen will not cause any side effects in recommended doses however a 60mg dose of codeine is enough to get you 'stoned' so be careful with codeine.

I know what you mean about the headaches pre-weather change. Ever time the air pressures change before a storm, I get a headache. Sometimes only a slight one. It always goes away once the storm breaks though. I usually just take a mild pain reliever, like ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

I think it really just has to do with the equalization of the pressure inside your head, versus outside your head. Our skull is full of sinuses which are literally holes inside our head. So, lucky us we have sensitive holes in our heads.