Why are people who have had broken bones able to “feel it when it’s raining?”
In: Biology
It’s not a matter of having broken bones, it just varies from person to person. Sometimes people who have never broken a bone can feel it, sometimes people who have broken bones can’t feel it. It just depends on the person, like whether they can easily whistle or whether they can wiggle their ears.
The reason is because just before it rains there is a drop in barometric pressure. You can see this easily with a barometer, but it also can have various physiological effects. If anything I would say that people with arthritis or that kind of thing can probably feel the drop in pressure more easily, because it can cause expansion of the joints in your body. (Less pressure outside the body, same pressure inside the body, joints expand — those with joint ailments like arthritis are more sensitive to changes in the joints because of inflammation)
I would like to add my own personal anecdote to this story, for what it’s worth.
My brother, at the age of 11 or so, suffered a rather horrific dog bite on his calf. The dog bit down and caused him to trip, ripping open about half his calf, causing some pretty nasty scarring.
For many years, he could tell when it would rain by pain at the site of the wound. But as he healed, year after year, the pain got less and less severe until there wasn’t any at all.
So OP, it’s certainly not just broken bones.
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That’s not typically a broken bone thing, typically you can feel rain coming in your joints. People with arthritis are particularly sensitive to it.
Rain and storms are preceded by a low pressure system. The storms and high winds are air moving into that area of low pressure as a way to reach equilibrium.
Anyway. You have an internal body pressure. And the air around you applies external pressure to your body. When a low pressure system forms there is less external pressure. This means you feel the effects of the internal pressure more. This can cause joint swelling or even pain in some cases.
People who “feel the rain coming” actually feel the low pressure system that causes rain and wind.
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