by Neil Anderson
Ever wonder where the old saying, "I feel it in my bones" comes from? Turns out this old saying had to do with surety one might feel in certain situations. More specifically, weather situations. Before radar charts and detailed weather maps,"old-timers" used to predict the weather by the pain they had in their joints before a weather event occurred. Were they accurate?
YEP!
It is well documented that people can predict weather systems occurring within 1-2 days of the actual event. Consider that of 92 year old Pennsylvania resident Edna (no last name given). She hasn't been wrong about a weather event for over 12 years. As recent as 2007 Tufts University discovered some of these reasons to be temperature and barometric pressure. Scientist now know why.
Whether they know it or not, most people who can predict oncoming weather events suffer from some form of arthritis (osteo or rheumatoid) or another type of rheumatoid disease (gout, lupus, fibromyalgia). These conditions cause inflammation. The inflammation each individual experiences may be mild to severe depending upon several factors. One of these factors has to do with barometric pressure. What most people don't know is that there is a slight negative pressure inside of each joint capsule of the body. This negative pressure is responsible for keeping articulating surfaces away from each other thereby reducing friction and potential injury to the joint. When a low pressure weather system comes in, it causes these tissues of the joints to expand due to the lower weight of the surrounding air. This expansion causes slightly more interference in your joints. For most, it goes unnoticed. For those with inflamed joints (even slightly) it does not. More interference equals even more inflammation. More inflammation equals more pain and Viola! You're a barometer!
It turns out that learning to trust the feeling in your bones may be instrumental in keeping you out all types of trouble. Even if the trouble may only be weather related.