Weather again !! :(
"Googling" this gets me nowhere, As IBS flare up triggers go, I don't see this mentioned.
But does anyone at all get the same as me?
I am fine in cold weather, snow, frost, and fine in heatwaves. But the worst thing that always manages to give me an upset IBS day is...rain. A rainy day with gloomy grey clouds. Every single time that happens, my tummy gets upset. It's the lower gut, not the stomach. I get awfully gassy, and have loose stools and discomfort. The gas and stools are not bad smelling at all, just vary between that trapped wind pain and just uncomfortable. I also get low energy, general achiness, lower abdominal distension and tiredness. Whatever I eat makes no difference at those times.
I was looking for any patterns and this one pops up every time. The pouring rain days.
Unfortunately I live in the UK where the weather can be changeable and rain can come more often than we like. It's "island weather" blown in from the Atlantic ocean.
And there's nothing at all I can do to control that or fix it.
What baffles me is HOW rainy weather or a sudden dip in atmospheric pressure sets off my IBS! What is the mechanism? Why does low pressure with snow in winter not bother my body but low pressure with rain does?? It never used to years ago.
We had a long dry spell and my gut was perfectly fine for most of the time, and no real flare ups. Now dramas again just because it rained endlessly for 12 hours.
Sometimes it feels like my gut is either a cat or a teenager.
I was just talking about this yesterday because I'm getting constant headaches with this rainy weather we're currently having. My IBS isn't usually affected as much as yours, but I also feel very tired, have no energy and get these headaches all the time. 🙁 Just like you, nothing I do or eat really helps.
Our symptoms might be a little different, but the mechanism seems to be the same, in the sense that our bodies react to the weather...
We have this article about the effects of heat and humidity on IBS: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/living/heat-humidity-affect-ibs
I also just did a quick Google search and found a couple of articles talking about the effects of pressure, although they don't mention IBS specifically:
"Changes in barometric pressure can cause headaches or pain."
Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/headache/barometric-pressure-headache
"Yet another reason for feeling tired or “down” in rainy weather is the effect of barometric pressure. Lower barometric pressure, which tends to accompany stormy weather, reduces the amount of available oxygen in the air. Drowsiness is one of the first signs of insufficient oxygen."
Source: https://verlo.com/blog/why-does-rain-make-me-sleepy/
And in this forum people discuss similar effects on IBS specifically: https://www.ibsgroup.org/threads/ibs-bad-weather-connections.11827/
You're definitely not alone. I hope it gets sunny again soon and we can all feel better!
All the best, Karina (team member)Oh I am sorry you also feel unwell in rainy weather, and get headaches. I know weather can affect migraines. I also wonder about the effect of less available light on the way the eyes function. It's harder to see things!
Maybe in wintertime we adapt but when it comes suddenly in summer it's harder for the brain to adapt quickly and that might cause headaches? I don't know.
Thank you very much for all those links and ideas! That stormy weather makes less available oxygen in the air...I had no idea that happened. It's odd because I would have imagined there was more (with the wind which often comes alongside rain etc)
Today the weather was an improvement on yesterday, though there was a short shower early this afternoon. That was pretty actually as the raindrops sparkled in the sunlight.
But my gut -though not perfect today -was a lot better.
It's not hot and humid right now. It has become cooler in the last week, so there's something about it which should feel refreshing. It's hard to understand why a weather change like that with rain would upset my gut and has been doing that for some time.
I once called my water company and asked them if pollution could get into the system from the field in rainstorms because every time it rained hard I got an upset tummy! Yes, it felt that bad.
The lady who replied sent me attached documents of the engineering of their system, and how the pressure and set-up made it impossible for pollutants to get inside.That's such an interesting idea about the light, I had never thought of that. I guess that it's just of of these things that don't get studied a lot because companies can't sell anything against the rain? But I might be wrong.
I'm glad that your gut is feeling better already. Yesterday was the first time we didn't get any rain, and lo and behold, I did not get a headache! For me personally, the cooler weather only feels 'refreshing' when it's not humid. Instead, what has been happening here is that it gets super hot, and then we get a thunderstorm. Then it gets hot again and so on. The thunderstorms are always really tough for me. Does something similar happen in the UK?
I would never have thought about the pollution getting in the water, but I'm glad that apparently this can't happen!
Karina (team member)
I wonder if some sort of light you could use in the early morning when you wake up (blue light or something?) might help your headaches during sudden gloomy rainy weather? Maybe like the lights recommended for Seasonal Affective Disorder (S, A..D.)? If they aren't too expensive that night be worth trying perhaps. My gut is not 100% better yet. I went through a much easier time for a few weeks and it flipped again recently. I am back on white rice, steamed fish, toast and butter, hard boiled eggs and not many veggies!
It's quite mean of IBS to give us such a hearty appetite when we can hardly eat very much at all and even eating plain food causes upsets!The weather pattern you describe is typically something that happens in the UK. After a long dry heatwave, thunderstorms usually arrive and then we get cooler unsettled weather for a time. The thunder and then the shift to unsettled always disturbs my gut.
For some reason my IBS seems much calmer during high pressure weather both in summer and in winter. It was the same in winter when we had freezing -10 and more cold dry high pressure weather with a bitter east wind. My gut was happy! It's all quite strange.
Yes, behind my house at the edge of the field is my water stop tap for the house. Cows graze in that field, and sometimes the farmer spreads slurry! So I did need to be reassured by the water company about the safety of their system under those conditions.
I never drink tap water but do use it boiled for hot drinks and use it for cooking food
No, I haven't tried light therapy. I had not thought of it for my IBS! But I did try that thing where you expose yourself to early morning sunlight. Apparently that's any time from dawn to 10am (luckily because I'm not much of an early bird! haha) I usually did mine about 8am. It didn't make any difference really to my IBS but was rather a nice thing to do. But I was wondering if it might help with headaches especially on gloomy days?
Apparently the early morning light is in the "blue light" spectrum. That's why we are not supposed to expose ourselves to it at night before sleep. But in the morning it's the right thing.Ah I hadn't thought about the light spectrum, I always wondered why it was recommended to go outside before 10 am! This is something I would really like to do, but for some reason I find it very hard. Although I do get outside for a couple of minutes every morning when driving my kids to daycare... but I suppose that's not enough. Did you just go for walks around 8 am? Did you see any difference in your energy levels or how well you were sleeping? Karina (team member)
Defo weather related with me as my migraine/IBS is always worse in dull clouds, rainy days like kinda humid at same time , I feel sluggish stiff and sickly, with headaches
So sorry you feel that way as well. Have you found anything that helps with that? I haven't found anything for my weather-related headaches so far... Karina (team member)
