Can the weather make you sick?
Cold, hot or humid
Weather forecast and body pains are thriving with each other. It is our folks wisdom that when the weather changes, the inner parts of our bodies adjust, creak and groan like old houses.
My experience told me that the scars of the flesh where my appendix was removed will begin to tingle becomes itchy but sometimes a little painful when the weather temperature drops. (The Weather Identification Handbook is a good source of information for weather neophytes,like me.)
Nowadays, the weather-health connection is getting a fresh deliberation in a field called human biometeorology, the study of how weather affects our bodies. Many of us are “weather sensitive” that we experience the symptoms or the repercussion of our body’s existing condition when the weather changes.
For more clarification about this matter, we can check weather.com for weather-related aches and pains. Although it serves more as a support group, it is also geared to people who have chronic afflictions such as rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and migraines. The site’s “Aches and Pains 101” primer shows attempts to link ailments with specific weather conditions.
1) Migraines – have been linked to cold, dry weather, though almost any weather change can be a problem.
2) Sinus headaches-have been associated with damp, cold weather, but recent study has shown that people actually have migraines.
3) Arthritis-some swear there’s a link to weather changes, but several studies never conclude the correlation for the past 20 years.
You can type your ZIP code on weather.com and you get the “ouch factor,” from one to ten, of your local weather. It’s up to you to believe the issues on horoscope-like aches and pains forecast being presented at the site.
You can also check intellicast.com for you “impairment factor.”
More and more weather forecast advisories are including other factors aside from the usual weather conditions. In German television, a storm forecast will also include alerts on migraines, strokes, heart attacks and accidents. Asthma attacks are also included in the US weather reports, usually during the month of October. Pollution has a greater impact in the spring and summer, while pollen and other airborne particles during the fall.
U.K. is already implementing the program Forecasting the Nation’s Health, using hospital and weather data to predict what type of patients are likely to show up at the hospital. For example, a drop in temperature will trigger heart attacks and respiratory ailments.
