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Changes in barometric pressure have many different effects on our bodies. The easiest and most obvious example is the pressure, feelings, and sounds in our ears with changes in elevation. That same pressure can have effects on other parts of our bodies including our breathing, blood pressure, and the way our muscles and joints feel.
As for gout, those pressures can have greater and lesser effects on different individuals in regards to their blood, lymph and other bodily fluids moving and circulating properly, allowing for ample elimination and excretion of metabolic wastes. The greater the buildup of uric acid waste and other acidic waste, changes in barometric pressure certainly does create the right physiological circumstances for a gout attack to occur.
Whether or not each and every change in barometric pressure will trigger a gout attack in a specific individual is highly unlikely. It is more likely that sudden changes in temperature would be more conducive to that.
After an extended period of time like the summer season, our bodies acclimatize and become accustom to the consistency of the average temperature. If the overnight temperatures drop dramatically producing unusually cold mornings as in the fall, it could be very easy for excess uric acid to form crystals in the joints of the extremities which is commonly characteristic.
As fall approaches and the environmental temperatures consistently drop, our bodies start re-acclimatize and adjust to new operating body temperatures and adapt. Nevertheless, there are a number of contributing factors that make even the changes in the weather have more and less effects on people prone to gout.
Humidity works in conjunction with the ambient temperature; high humidity can intensify the extremes in the atmospheric temperature. 100% humidity in Houston, TX on 90 degree day is nearly unbearable, and similarly, high humidity on a cold winter day in Boston is "bone chilling". Humidity can magnify the intensity of the effects of temperature on our bodies in subtle and not so subtle ways.
Sunlight is an often over-looked source of physical nourishment. Our free and ample source of Vitamin D is completely under-utilized in our modern society. Commonly linked to Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the serotonin supplied by our exposure the sun is essential.
What is equally important is to supply our bodies with is consistent exercise and movement. Especially important for the health and maintenance of our Lymphatic System, keeping the bodily fluids flowing steadily is a hugely ignored requirement. Unlike the Circulatory System, the lymph system has no heart as a pump to maintain the flow. There is more lymph fluid in our bodies than blood and this is the system that serves to facilitate the elimination of toxic wastes.
In summary, weather certainly can have an effect on the occurrence of gout attacks. However, the cause of gout is the intolerable build-up of acid waste.
