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