Under the Weather: How Weather and Climate Affect Our Health
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ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page ii ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page iii Under the Weather How the Weather and Climate Affect our Health PAT THOMAS ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page iv First published in 2004 by Fusion Press, a division of Satin Publications Ltd. 101 Southwark Street London SE10JF UK [email protected] www.visionpaperbacks.co.uk Publisher: Sheena Dewan © Pat Thomas 2004 The right of Pat Thomas to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 1-904132-30-8 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Cover and text design by ok?design. Printed and bound in the UK by Mackays of Chatham Ltd, Chatham, Kent. ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page v to weather watchers everywhere ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page vi ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page vii Contents Acknowledgements ix Preface xi Chapter 1 The Human Barometer 1 Chapter 2 Of Seasons and Cycles 24 Chapter 3 The Sun and the Moon 42 Chapter 4 When the Wind Blows 63 Chapter 5 Stormy Weather 92 Chapter 6 Having a Heatwave 109 Chapter 7 Winter Chills 139 Chapter 8 Artificial Environments 165 References 197 Bibliography 248 Index 251 About the Author 258 ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page viii ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page ix Acknowledgements Although this book started out as a small project, it soon became apparent that there was a wealth of information on the weather/health link buried in various libraries, second-hand bookshops and medical and scientific jour- nals around the world. Many things in my life were put on hold while I ferreted out these titbits. I am indebted to all the usual crowd who have been patient with me over the writing of this book, including (first and foremost) my son Alex. Thanks to Lynne McTaggert and Bryan Hubbard for their tolerance and encouragement, and all my friends whose kind invitations to ‘chill out’ with them I have had to decline while I remained tethered to my computer. My agent Laura Longrigg’s faith is a continu- ing source of strength. Grateful appreciation to all at Fusion Press, including Charlotte Cole, for seeing the potential in this fascinating subject. ix ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page x ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page xi Preface Let’s talk about the weather. When I was in my late teens I moved from Los Angeles where we had climate to London where we have weather. I made my entrance on a cold November night in an unsuitable pair of slingback sandals, lugging a suitcase full of unsuitable clothes, and promptly fell down a flight of icy stairs onto what was then a bleak outdoor rail plat- form attached to Gatwick airport. A very sensibly dressed couple in practical shoes picked me up, dusted me off and asked if perhaps I had any more appropriate footwear that I could change into before continuing my journey. I fell over a lot that winter. It was the first time I had ever been exposed to extreme cold – never mind ice and snow – on a day-in, day-out basis. Plugging endless coins into the two-bar electric fire in my rented flat, I felt quite literally sick at heart at the monumental miscalculation I had made in coming to live in such an inhospitable part of the world. Learning to adapt to the weather can be difficult; yet if human evolution has taught us anything, it is that we are masters at adaptation. Humans have thrown considerable energy and inge- nuity at adapting to and protecting themselves against the weather. We build shelters. We engineer and wear seasonal clothing. We damp- and windproof our xi ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page xii under the weather homes. In winter, we insulate and heat; in summer we switch on the fans and turn up the cold air in our indoor environments. We have, in fact, become so good at adapting to the weather that we have forgotten just what a powerful force it is, and that it can influence our health and well being more deeply than cold toes and chapped lips. While some might argue that all the things we do to protect ourselves from the weather make us immune to its effects, there is another more persuasive argument to suggest that all the trappings of modern life actually make us more susceptible to abrupt changes in weather. Walking from a highly-heated home into the cold of a winter’s day can mean experiencing an almost immedi- ate drop in temperature of 10°C/50° F – the same kind of sudden temperature change that has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular failure in vulnerable individuals. Our gradual detachment from nature and our modern lifestyle – complete with air conditioners, humidifiers and central heating – has made us more sensitive to environmental influences. Our bodies have lost much of the adaptability that would otherwise help them cope with the shock of rapidly changing weather elements. If you are fit and healthy, the shock may remain unnoticed, or pass as a minor nuisance. But if your body is weakened by stress or age, the result can be a range of mood disorders, illness and even death. What is more, scientists predict that our game of one- upmanship with nature, played by releasing green- house gases and pollution into the environment, may ultimately make our sensitivity to the weather even xii ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page xiii preface more acute. Global warming is expected to increase the likelihood of severe weather all over the world, making it less predictable, more extreme and, for a variety of reasons, more damaging to human health. To some, such statements may seem like quackery or an archaic form of armchair meteorology. If weather was really important to health, surely our doctors and scientists would have told us so? Unfortunately, tradi- tional scientific study, by its very nature, factors out as unimportant anything that man cannot ‘control’. So it is not surprising that the weather, and its diverse, and occasionally subtle, influences on human health, have been sidelined in favour of more predictable disease- causing agents such as germs and genetic theory. Many of us realise on an unconscious level that weather affects the way we feel. Why else would we refer to ourselves as being ‘under the weather’ when we are ill? Why else would so many of us attribute sudden changes in our health or well being to changes in the weather? What most of us don’t realise is the extent to which weather controls our health. A growing body of scientific evidence is confirm- ing the weather/health link and suggests that around 1 in 3 of us are ‘weather sensitive’. Increasingly, researchers throughout the world are now using weather and climate predictions as a compass to track health trends and develop preventive meas- ures. This relatively new scientific discipline is known as ‘Biometeorology’. On a very large scale, biometeorologists look at the relationship between atmospheric patterns around the world, changes in climate and effects on global health patterns. On a xiii ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page xiv under the weather smaller scale, they study the effects of weather on individual health. There are stalwart scientists who are piecing together this complex information, and their findings are fasci- nating, not only on an intellectual level, but also on an intuitive one. That our bodies could interact with the natural environment at such a deep level shows just how much a part of nature we are. It confirms that the human organism is extraordinarily sensitive to its surroundings – more so than most of us realise. The weather, with its mixture of electrical forces, heat, water and wind, is a natural influence that defines and controls us. Try as we might to separate who we are, how we behave and the state of our health from environmental influences, we cannot. Most of us talk about the weather when we want to pass the time in a bland sort of way. If this book does anything at all, it will hopefully lift the curtain on weather as a dynamic force that shapes and influences our lives in unexpected and profound ways. Next time you say to someone ‘It looks like rain’, it could just be the entrée to a whole different sort of conversation and an entirely different way of thinking. Pat Thomas xiv ppi-196 newSingLang 16/5/05 4:05 pm Page 1 Chapter One The Human Barometer Whoever wishes to pursue properly the science of medicine must proceed thus. First, he ought to consider what effects each season of the year can produce: for the seasons are not alike, but differ widely both in themselves and at their changes…1 This was the advice offered to future physicians by Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine.