Barometric Pressure & Back Pain

Many people believe weather changes can affect back pain, but evidence is anecdotal. Doctors and researchers are beginning to study if barometric pressure changes, caused by incoming weather, makes back pain fluctuate.

What is Barometric Pressure?

• Barometric pressure is the weight of the atmosphere, or air, as measured by the rise and fall of a barometer. Atmosphere varies according to the weather and where you are–pressure at sea level is higher; pressure on a mountain top is lower.

Barometric Pressure and Weather

• Barometric pressure also rises or falls depending on incoming weather. If a low-pressure system (wet weather) is coming, the barometer falls; with approaching high-pressure systems (dry weather), the pressure rises.

Survey on Weather and Pain

• The same may be true of your level of back pain. In a 1995 survey done by Professor Robert Jamison of Brigham and Women's Pain Management Center in Boston, a questionnaire was given to 557 people in cities with unstable weather, like Boston, and cities with stable weather patterns, such as San Diego.

Survey Results

• The results, published in the Harvard University Gazette, September 26, 1995, indicated the pain levels of those surveyed were affected by changes in incoming weather, not existing weather. Professor Jamison believes the evidence, while still anecdotal, seems to indicate back pain and joint pain levels react more to barometric pressure than existing weather.

Barometric Pressure and Joint Pain in Rats

• Another study, connecting low pressure and artificially induced joint pain in rats, was published in the International Journal of Biometeorology in 2003. Dr. Jun Sato, who contributed to the Japan-based study, noted that rats exposed to a low-pressure, low-temperature environment showed signs of joint pain not observed in a group of control rats.