KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You can escape the cold by moving your exercise indoors for the winter, but you can’t escape those aches and pains.
Feeling those changes in your body come down to one main thing: barometric pressure.
Changes in barometric pressure occur when storms are approaching. We usually see high pressure drop to low pressure as winter storms brew. This swing can create more aches and pains in your body.
Dr. Eric Phillips DC, owner and chiropractor at Identity Chiropractic, explains that barometric pressure influences your body through changing how blood moves through your joints.
"Weather, and when it does get colder, there is a shift in the barometric pressure. That barometric pressure has been shown in some research to cause decreased blood flow to areas,” Phillips said.
Phillips and Dr. Jenna Voegeli, who also works at Identity Chiropractic, both agree that healthy blood flow is an important factor for joint mobility. This is because blood brings some nutrients and oxygen into your joints to keep them healthy and feeling better.
"So anytime that the weather gets colder, you are going to notice things start to ache a little bit more, things start to feel stiff. Things feel tighter than they normally do because you aren’t getting that circulation that you normally do,” Voegeli said.
But, not everyone feels barometric pressure the same. If you’ve had surgery or have chronic inflammation or injury, you may be more sensitive to pressure swings.
Both Phillips and Voegeli say the best thing you can do as pain episodes flare up is to move your body to get a healthy blood flow.
But, it's not just barometric pressure that impacts your body, cold air can, as well.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of the Infection Control and Prevention program at The University of Kansas Health System, said there is new research that shows cold air impacts our body's ability to fight off colds and flu viruses.
"There was a large paper published December of last year, which did show that temperature changes — going down into the 40s and 50s, or even colder — can change some of that immune response in your nasal passages," Hawkinson said.
He explained that in this study, cold air was shown to kill cells within your nasal passage. This is important because cells in your nasal passage are the first line of defense against viruses.
This research, while new, shows cold weather can affect your immune response.
Humidity also plays a role in helping spread pathogens. Hawkinson explained that respiratory droplets can spread more easily through humid air.
So, what about the use of humidifiers? Do they cause more harm than good by allowing viral spread?
Hawkinson said, in short, yes, by keeping nasal passages lubricated.
But, your bedside humidity levels play a very small role in the spread of germs. According to Hawkinson, the humidity of your overall environment contributes to the spread of viruses on a much larger scale.
“So even in the fall, if there isn't a lot of rain, we know that some of the viruses do start to die when they are desiccated or dried up," Hawkinson said.
But, he also cautioned that while the weather plays a role, our winter cold and flu season is really all about human behavior. It’s being back in school, traveling for the holidays, and meeting indoors versus outdoors. Those behavioral changes are what stir up cold and flu season the most.
Hawkinson said even places like Florida and Arizona have higher rates of contagion in the winter.
“In warmer climate, equatorial climates, do these things change? That doesn’t really happen," he said. "Those areas still have their (cold and flu) seasons, they still have high circulation of the virus. So, it’s less about the actual temperature and humidity, and more about people getting together. Because in those areas, you’re still going to have increased circulation of the virus, particularly if people are traveling to and from those areas. So, they will bring the virus with them.”
The bottom line is, you can't outrun cold and flu season, but you can take steps to protect yourself, like washing your hands and getting vaccinated.
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