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What are the health effects of

small air pressure fluctuations?

Medical science has known for many years, that so-called baroreceptors in the human body are required to maintain a regular blood pressure. Baroreceptors are nerve endings located in the walls of the small conical pouches in the heart chambers, and in the large veins connected to the heart. They detect blood pressure variations and send a message to the central nervous system, which includes the brain, to increase or decrease the resistance in the peripheral blood vessels and to increase or decrease the output of the heart.

In the above-mentioned study, scientists simulated the natural fluctuations of the air pressure and measured changes in blood pressure of healthy volunteers. Those fluctuations are equivalent to naturally generated air pressure variations such as during turbulence, passage of a weather front, or caused by wind buffeting amongst buildings.

Even solar wind particles and short-wave solar radiation can, according to the authors of the study, generate similar air pressure fluctuations. The monitoring of solar activities is, therefore, of importance to human wellbeing.

During the study, healthy volunteers were subjected to air pressure fluctuations of 50 Pascal in 30 seconds intervals. The average air pressure on the earth’s surface is 1013 Hectopascal or 101300 Pascal. A fluctuation of 50 Pascal is, therefore, a very small change. Surprisingly though, the systolic blood pressure fell by about 7% and the cardiac output increased by around 10%, a significant variation for such a small amount of air pressure change.

The authors of the study concluded with a discussion, speculating over possible other effects on the human body:

“It must be noted that the baroreceptor impulses do not only reach the cardiovascular centre in medulla oblongata. They proceed further up to the hypothalamus where they cause changes in the activity of many neurons and influence homeostasis.”

Homeostasis is the ability or tendency of an organism or cell to maintain internal equilibrium.

The authors continued: “Baroreceptor signals participate in the formation of emotional state and working capacity. The mechanism considered may provide a link between symptoms in weather sensitive persons and changes in weather.”

Critics of weather sensitivity often argue that the changes in weather elements, such as air pressure, humidity, temperature etc. are to small to cause any medical symptoms. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, where the accumulation of several small quantities of chemicals cause similar effects in humans as an overdose of one particular chemical, is a prime example of this argument. For years medical professionals have dismissed the complaints of patients, who showed symptoms of chemical poisoning after exposure to several “safe” levels of chemicals, as imagination– or worse – as hypochondriacal.

A recent study, conducted by Ukraine’s National University in collaboration with the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, should also lay to rest the argument that small air pressure fluctuations aren’t significant enough to cause any detrimental effects to human wellbeing.

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