Ever noticed how even a casual rash hurts in winters more than it would hurt on a normal sunny summer day? You must have felt how you start to feel like a really aged person, and even your body seems to get fatigued more quickly when it’s cold! An increase in magnitude of joint pains, the worsening of old injuries… Winter can be blamed for a lot of things! It isn’t your body’s fault or any sort of medical emergency but rather a very common phenomenon which is observed worldwide.
Imagine how you go to your offices, classes and other working spaces in such throes of this dazzling winter. If you are not a fan of winters, you would just want to sit in your blanket for the whole day long and have some modern fun like “Netflix & Chill”, but that isn’t the case for everybody and it doesn’t answer our problem too. Many of you think of just hovering over internet and look up for answers about “How to get over the winter pain” but generally end with some really complex things like change in barometric pressure, a decrease in muscle and tendon elasticity with decreased temperatures, decreased blood flow to the joints, and even seasonal affective disorder which could make you feel even more numb and you would end up in blankets.
After going through a bit of already made research, I came up with a more plausible theory which seems to involve a systematic functioning of our nervous system and some other body parts which make our body capable of dynamicity. Initially it might seem to be complicated to you but here I have tried explaining this infinitive concept of “Our Nervous System” in a few key terms – knowledge of these will explain the whole problem to you in a snap.
The Nervous System Explained:
The nervous system can be explained with the example of an “information train” which simply runs in your whole body moving from one end to the other. All your sensation, feelings, desires, impulses, vital signals are transported to your brain (The processor) by your “Nerve Trains”. A really important work, isn’t it? Our Nervous System consists of the brain, nerves, and the spinal cord. The peripheral nerves carry the impulses through the spinal cord to the brain, where the brain will do the rest of the processing part. Believe it or not, you won’t have feelings -of pain and pleasure- without these precious nerves (Alas! that heart of yours plays no role in it).
Our sensory organs and nerves send signals to the brain through the spine. Imagine how frequently you would get tired if every signal that came from all such millions of sensory points went to the brain for processing. The brain would not be able to handle such amount of constant stimulation, further causing a delay in processing, and a lag in processing may lead you to death – imagine how it would be to start feeling the burning sensation when half of the body is already burnt.
So, any impulse that is to be sent to the brain must cross a sensation limit to bypass the key to unlock the way to the brain, i.e. it may be allowed to travel through the spinal cord only if it is past that limit. Our brain adjusts the threshold limit, however, if the sensation remains constant for a longer period of time, supporting the fact that many times you forget where you kept the pen even when you’re holding it in your hand or how you forget to take your glasses off. You may not feel absurd or heavily burdened upon wearing clothes as your body fine-tunes itself for that threshold of stimuli.
The nervous system follows a “Deal or No deal” system – there will be either no input (sending off of impulse) at all or there will be a complete transmission of stimulus.
What is the relation between cold and pain?
Well, the answer lies in the nervous system and it is high time to unfold the truth of that extra pain. What causes that pain to be felt as more painful is the crossing of the impulse of stimuli above threshold with a greater margin. When you encounter any pain or other such sensation, it is boosted by the preoccupied sensation of cold. Since the body is already fine-tuned by the sensation of cold, all it (stimuli) needs to do is to cross that small amount of sensation limit to pass the threshold. This tricks our trustworthy brain, and it combines the stimuli of pain with cold and treating the impulse to be of higher measure and dispatching signals for intense pain so that we may be aware of that treacherous substance that is causing us pain and back off far away from it – this is a life-saving mechanism at times!
The sub thresholds might also be present in forms of arthritis, old injuries, fibromyalgia and other conditions that get egregious in such low temperature conditions of winter.
Are there any other possible reasons too?
Yes, there are more such phenomena that take place to make this sensation happen or even make it worse sometimes! The skin in winters gets rigid and sensitive due to lesser blood supply. This binds up a full-fledged bad experience when our arms or fingers get hit when they are cold, as compared to when they are warm, soft and flexible. The blazing wind of winter, exacerbating the situations, drains all of the moisture content present on our skin (that the body secretes), making it more vulnerable to the scratches and unnecessary rashes.
As you might guess, the descendance temperature drops the atmospheric pressure too. People suffering with arthritis often report about excessive pain and swelling in joints. The lower pressure subsequently leads to enhanced swelling in the previously inflamed tissues, stimulating pain in those nerves and causing more pain. The temperature on the other hand shrinks down tissues which causes stretching in nerves, further worsening the previously spoilt conditions. To your curiosity, many predict the onset of winters by the pain they start to feel in their joints or by a general feeling of numbness throughout their body. Although there has not been scientifically said over the effect on joints with the weather, a few people behold this as a natural phenomenon that is part of a human life.
Conclusion:
- The problem of feeling more pain in winters is a common effect and is felt by everyone around the globe.
- We can say that the feeling of excessive sensation of pain is a combined work of many parts of the body.
- Although the weather is not a totally certified indicator of joint pains but it affects our bodies in other ways like making it susceptible to rashes and causing dryness in the more sensitive parts of body (example: eyes) which causes itching and irritation.
- The pain is caused due to a cumulative effect of shrinking of tissues, sensitive nervous stimuli, swelling in previously inflamed tissues (if any), swelling of tendons and stretching of nerves due to low pressure and temperature.
Report by Sashit Vijay
