Man is able to sense an approaching rain or storm? The endocrinologist explains

It is assumed that some people are able to sense that the weather is changing. The crowd of people who even without looking at the sky know that the full moon has just started – they get nervous, their appetite is tightening, and serious problems with sleep appear. Can humans, like animals, really feel such subtleties? We ask Dr. Sylwia Kuźniarz-Rymarz, an endocrinologist.

1. Animals are adept at forecasting weather changes – birds excel, but even domestic cats seem to know that rain is coming and avoid going outside when they do so.
2. Is it the same with people? Not completely. But certain changes are registered especially by people suffering from certain diseases
3. The expert also explains why Poles seem sadder than inhabitants of other latitudes
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Adrian Dąbek, Medonet: In the case of animals, it can be seen that they sense the coming weather changes – rain, storm, snow. Is man also susceptible to such phenomena?

Dr Sylwia Kuźniarz-Rymarz, endocrinologist: People react most to changes in pressure with their well-being. As organisms, we mainly consist of water, we also have air and the same elements and atoms as the entire universe. So any changes in atmospheric pressure will have an impact on us.

One says “calm before the storm” and all nature then goes silent. In the case of a human, it seems different, he in turn becomes aroused.

Man must have become so civilized that he has lost the ability to receive such signals. Mainly it happens in the animal world, they feel the subtle vibrations of the earth or changes in the air. We no longer know what is coming. Although a change in the smell of the atmosphere can signal us, a storm has its own smell. So I think we have something left of the ancestors.

How does the moment of the storm affect us?

For many people, it acts primarily anxiously. This applies to both children and adults. In many cases, this fear is justified, even when we are in the mountains. For some people, fear is irrational, subconscious. The organism then reacts with pressure surges, palpitations, sweating, headache or abdominal pain. These are reactions to stress. Moreover, it has to do with changes in pressure – what happens outside also happens inside of us.

Can rain also somehow influence our feeling?

People suffering from rheumatic diseases complain of ailments related to the joints, this is how they react to the impending weather change in the form of rain. Perhaps it is related to a change in air humidity or a drop in temperature. Because the changes in the direction of improving the weather are rather unnoticeable.

Radical changes in temperature can also be felt by a change in mood?

I always refer to man as an object at the center of the universe. There is no phenomenon in the world that does not affect us. Everything that happens in nature also affects humans. On the other hand, the universe strives for balance so that everything is balanced. Each change breaks us out of this balance, and throwing us out of our well-being causes deterioration of well-being, mood, fatigue, reluctance to work, and lower efficiency. When the situation stabilizes, our organisms adjust to it.

That is why we are so hard going through the spring and autumn solstices. When it rains all the time during the fall, we get used to it, but before it happens, we have to tune in to the change from summer to autumn. Likewise, in summer, when the temperature changes from moderate to hot, our thermostat has to adjust. And when the temperature suddenly drops, we are already tuned to high temperature (sweating, heat, metabolism), we have to adapt again.

We feel such changes at the cellular and biochemical level. We have to do work at the DNA level to adapt. And so we stay until the next change.

It is said that Poles love to complain about the weather. Do we actually feel these changes more than other nations, or are we just oversensitive?

When we compare ourselves to the inhabitants of southern European or African countries, we actually seem sadder. Perhaps it has to do with the production of vitamin D or the release of endorphins under the influence of the sun. Southerners are more open and playful, and we are more closed, sadder, more likely to complain. It may also be related to the temperate climate, that is, neither this nor the climate, where big changes take place every now and then, constantly throwing us off balance.

Do phenomena such as the full moon affect our body?

Definitely yes. This is confirmed by, for example, nurses working in wards in hospitals – during a full moon there are more suicides, including childbirth. The full moon is a fascinating phenomenon. And the person on the edge of the psychic sense feels some mystical signals that make him more prone to certain actions. If the moon is able to cause the ebb and flow of the oceans, then we, as organisms of predominantly water, must also be subject to this moon phase. The very word menstruation suggests that it has to do with the month, or the moon. Calendar should appear every 28 days.

Perhaps most people complain of being unable to fall asleep during a full moon.

There is insomnia or sleepwalking. I admit that it influenced me like that in my childhood. I know it from my mother’s story. I was sleepwalking, at full moon she found me sleeping on the stairs. That is why in our room it covered the blinds so that the influence of the moon was as low as possible. I do not know how much scientific explanation there is, but there is always some element of truth in the accounts or folk wisdom. In the past, people were more sensitive to what happens in nature, they reacted to changes. Now we have tons of modern equipment to reduce this sensitivity.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that we need blackout for full rest. It is scientifically proven that the quality of sleep is lowered even by a small lamp that shines at night. Sleep specialists recommend sleeping in a completely dark room. When it is full, it is difficult to be completely dark.