Has anyone felt significantly better after moving to a Mediterranean region, due to the increase in atmospheric pressure?

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Bowser

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I have strong convictions that my ME/CFS is being caused by intracranial hypertension, and evidence suggests that some unknown portion of patients have ICH as the cause.

ICH is strongly affected by barometric and temperature alterations, especially with reductions in atmospheric pressure and temperature extremes. If you feel worse when the weather is rainy, then this might make sense to you, as the atmospheric pressure reduces during cloudy weather.

The Mediterranean region seems to be the best place to move for such a person, as it has some of the highest atmospheric pressures in the world along with ideal temperatures, not too hot or cold.

I remember reading a case, either migraines or CFS, who obtained 100% remission after moving permanently to a Mediterranean region. But I can’t find the post now. Can you help? @Hip

Unfortunately I live in an equatorial region which has some of the lowest atmospheric pressures.

You can measure barometric pressure variations using a barometer app on your phone, which has an inbuilt barometer for GPS. You can compare it to atm pressures across the world using this website: https://barometricpressure.app/
 
Hip

Hip

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Bowser said:
The Mediterranean region seems to be the best place to move for such a person, as it has some of the highest atmospheric pressures in the world along with ideal temperatures, not too hot or cold.
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I don't think you can have any region of the world at sea level which has a higher atmospheric pressure, because that high pressure would be rapidly neutralized by wind. Wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure between one region and and another.

You can of course have countries which have higher swings in atmospheric pressure, and these swings do affect health.

In any case, even if you moved to a place which had higher atmospheric pressure, I don't think it would have an effect intracranial hypertension, because the atmospheric pressure is equally implied everywhere in the body, both inside and outside the head.



Bowser said:
I remember reading a case, either migraines or CFS, who obtained 100% remission after moving permanently to a Mediterranean region. But I can’t find the post now. Can you help? @Hip
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I can only remember a story of an Canadian ME/CFS patient getting remission after moving to Costa Rica.
 
B

Bowser

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Hip said:
I don't think you can have any region of the world at sea level which has a higher atmospheric pressure, because that high pressure would be rapidly neutralized by wind. Wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure between one region and and another.
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Even at sea level, there are small variations of 5-20 hpa across different regions of the world. This is quite measurable and easily available in weather forecasts. And yes, these small changes do have a measurable impact on intracranial pressure specifically.

Hip said:
In any case, even if you moved to a place which had higher atmospheric pressure, I don't think it would have an effect intracranial hypertension, because the atmospheric pressure is equally implied everywhere in the body, both inside and outside the head.
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No, decreases in atmospheric pressure have an outsized impact on intracranial pressure. There are a range of scientific papers showing this. In the following article, you can check the section with the title “barometrically influenced” for the explanation and study references:

https://mskneurology.com/myalgic-encephalomyelitis-me-biomechanical/

Here is a quote from one of the studies about migraines:

Small decreases of 6–10 hPa relative to the standard atmospheric pressure of 1013 hPa induced migraine attacks most frequently in patients with migraine. - Okuma et al., 2015
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Since we are on this subject, I should link the paper by Dr. Nicholas Higgins that broadly links ME/CFS to intracranial hypertension. I feel like we do not discuss this enough: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28735654/
 
Hip

Hip

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Bowser said:
Even at sea level, there are small variations of 5-20 hpa across different regions of the world. This is quite measurable and easily available in weather forecasts.
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Yes, but those are the day to day variations of pressure. For a region to be at a consistently higher atmospheric pressure than another region, the yearly average of those pressures would have to be higher.

Have you seen a map or diagram where the Med has average atmospheric pressures higher than most other regions?



Bowser said:
No, decreases in atmospheric pressure have an outsized impact on intracranial pressure. There are a range of scientific papers showing this. In the following article, you can check the section with the title “barometrically influenced” for the explanation and study references:
Click to expand...

Decreases in atmospheric are a transient phenomenon, a change of pressure, and these will certainly have an impact. They affect conditions like arthritis too. But once the pressure settles at its new value, the impact stops.

So there would be no long term benefit or worsening if moving to a region of higher pressure or lower pressure. It's just the change in atmospheric pressure that has a medical effect, and that is out of our control, as it is determined by the weather.



Bowser said:
Please let me know if you find that story.
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Easy enough to find by entering Costa Rica into the search box: here.
 
B

Bowser

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Hip said:
Have you seen a map or diagram where the Med has average atmospheric pressures higher than most other regions?
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Yes of course. Check here: https://www.windy.com/-Menu/tools?pressure,14.860,-101.074,3. Tap on any location on the map for a pressure reading.

EDIT: It doesn’t show average pressures over the year, but it does show the current pressure. I believe the differences across regions still persist over the year. I will search for a diagram with the avg pressure.

EDIT2: Here are the averages: https://www.researchgate.net/figure...at-sea-level-in-2015-data-from_fig4_329138708

Beyond the transient changes in atmospheric pressure based on weather, the atmospheric pressure also changes across different regions of the world, as shown in this map.
 
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Hip

Hip

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Bowser said:
EDIT2: Here are the averages: https://www.researchgate.net/figure...at-sea-level-in-2015-data-from_fig4_329138708
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There's not really much month-to-month consistency in average pressure, except for the fact the poles are at lower pressure than the equator.

In any case, slightly higher or lower average pressures I cannot see helping intracranial hypertension, because it is the change in pressure that tends to cause health issues.

The only thing that I think might possibly help is moving to a part of the world where the daily changes in barometric pressure are smaller.

In countries like Poland, where they have large swings in barometric pressure, the TV weather forecast not only tells you the weather, but also they tell you how you are going to feel the next day, because people's health is quite affected by the large fluctuation in pressure.
 
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Wishful

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Bowser said:
I have strong convictions that my ME/CFS is being caused by intracranial hypertension,
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That seems like an easy hypothesis to test. I couldn't find a quick answer to how much pressure change running a typical bathroom fan will cause, but it should be fairly simple to create pressure variation in a room that exceeds typical outdoor variation. No need to move across the world to do it. Just set it up with proper scientific controls, or the results will be meaningless.

BTW, I too wondered how the mediterranean area could have a significantly different atmospheric pressure. Pressure is based on elevation and temperature, with some additional variation due to winds.
 
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lenora

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Years ago I noticed that when I was in the UK after a certain length of time, I actually felt better. Now that could have been b/c I slept....I have terrible jet lag, but I had more energy and just felt overall better. Of course I was younger, too.

Where I am now (Dallas, TX) I find the pressures are constantly up, down and all around. I can literally forecast the weather just based on how I feel in the hours preceding any change. I'm not going to move because of it, but I do feel that we can feel better in a different climate.

It didn't matter that it rained a lot at the time of year we were in the UK, it was the constant pressure. that made the difference. I do wonder if that effect may lessen with time....just like allergies improve for approx. 2 yrs. after a move and then return full force. It's all rather odd. Yours, Lenora.
 
Violeta

Violeta

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Violeta said:
I have been wondering if glymphatics status affects intracranial pressure.
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Here's a study that talks about this.
This study talks about the cause being arachnoid granulations, but perhaps there could be other reasons.

You could call it glymphedema.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension: The veno glymphatic connections


https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30201744/
 
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Hufsamor

Hufsamor

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B93AD5E9-DBFB-40C4-BDF7-9B8B94A3714A.jpeg

dark blue is high atmospheric pressure.

When I was sick with me, but not as sick as I am now, we would take a holiday in the Mediterranean area every winter. And I felt so much better at the very moment I went out of the plane. When I first read about the theory that air pressure might be the reason, I thought I made perfect sense.
I have never thought of it in connection with intracranial symptom, but why not?
Several sicknesses seems to be behave better down there.
Many doctors thinks it’s due to the heat, but I’m not convinced.
Maybe because the heat is dryer than in Norway in the summer?
Or the maybe the air pressure works in combination with the dry heat ?
I feel better down there, than in Norway during the summer, no matter the temperature here.

I know of several people with several conditions who have chosen to live in eg Spain, because they feel so much better.
 
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hapl808

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I often feel better after plane flights - but it's very temporary. Usually I would feel worse on the flight, then significantly better for hours after landing, slowly dissipating. Always thought it was interesting, but this is back when I was mild or moderate. I haven't traveled in years.

When I was mild to moderate, I usually felt much worse in equatorial tropical climates. The constant heat and humidity didn't seem to agree with me at all. I do better in pretty moderate climates I think.
 
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lenora

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Absolutely are migraines are affected by barometric pressure. You can definitely feel one coming on. Yours, L.
 
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