Feeling ‘under the weather’ not a fallacy

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 9

Feeling ‘under the weather’ not a fallacy

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Next time you feel miserable and out of sorts, wake up with a migraine or an unexpected ache or pain, take a look at your barometer. It could provide all the diagnosis you need. Recent research suggests that many health conditions may be intimately affected by sudden changes in barometric pressure. Extremely low pressure can trigger off drowsiness and exhaustion, while very high pressure has been associated with high blood pressure and heart attacks.

Some studies have indicated that drug reactions are also affected by pressure changes. One study found that a safe dose of the powerful heart drug digitalis could become fatal when the air pressure suddenly dropped, as before a storm.

It appears that sudden changes in atmospheric pressure affect production of large numbers of body hormones. Although we are designed by nature to be able to detect tiny changes in pressure, and the body has mechanisms for adjusting water and blood pressure accordingly, not all systems are as efficient as they might be. Around one-third of people, according to one estimate, are particularly susceptible to pressure changes. Mental health is particularly affected. Suicides are far more common when barometric pressure is low, as are all kinds of violence, traffic and industrial accidents.

Arthritis and rheumatism are also very influenced by changes in pressure, as these alterations produce constriction of blood vessels. One study at the Mayo Clinic in America monitored 376 arthritic patients for a year, and found that there was a dramatic correlation between arthritic pain and barometric readings. This finding was confirmed by a later study carried out in high-security American prisons by Dr Joseph Hollander. He chose to undertake his research in prisons becaues the inmates had no idea what the weather was like outside. He discovered that pain always worsened with changes in atmospheric pressure. British doctor, Frank Dudley Hart, author of the book “Overcoming Arthritis,” published by Optima, said: “Hollander found that going from high to low always aggravated aches and pains. But when pressure stays the same, arthritic pain stays the same as well.

Dr Hart added: “There have been very few scientific studies on the effects of weather on mood. But it does seem that dull days definitely make moods worse, and that we do feel more cheerful on sunny days.”

But if pressure changes are stressful, then transitional times of the year could

LIZ HODGKINSON

be even more so. Dr William Thompson, author of the Book "A Change of Air: Climate and Health,” says that when spring is in the air, blood acidity can increase and extra high levels of cholesterol and sugar course round the body. Spring, it seems, has a greater effect on body systems than any other season of the year, although autumn is another danger time. Howling winds can also influence the workings of the central nervous system.

Seasonal Affective Disorder causes some people to become suicidally miserable through lack of sunlight. The cure is to bathe them in special lights in hospitals and health centres. There is also an opposite disorder, whereby people can become extremely miserable in very warm, calm weather. The treatment for “summer sadness” is to go to a very cold, wintry place. Dr Damien Downing, who runs a health centre in York, and is a founder of the British Society for Nutritional Medicine believes that sunlight, or lack of it, intimately affects everybody’s health.

Sunlight, he says, improves mental and physical health, strengthens the immune system and also affects the absorption of many key minerals and vitamins.

One reason many of us feel so “under the weather” these days, he says, is because we tend to live our lives in a perpetual indoors, in artificial atmospheres. If we would get out more — and even- the darkest day contains some sunlight — we would find ourselves in far better physical and mental health. “Many vitamins and minerals depend on sunlight to be absorbed into the body,” he said. “We all know that vitamin D needs sunlight. But essential minerals such as magnesium and calcium cannot be metabolised correctly without the sun.

“Deficiency of calcium can lead to a variety of mental and neurological disorders such as depression and anxiety, insomnia, general tension, jumpiness and twitchiness. Magnesium deficiency can impair concentration and cause general confusion.”

Sunlight, says Dr Downing, also aids excretion of toxic minerals such as lead and cadmium.

“We’re in danger of forgetting that sunlight is an essential nutrient which stimulates the immune system and recharges the biochemical batteries. It’s now been shown that hyperactivity in children is made worse by artificial light. “Worldwide, we spend billions of pounds a year on drugs to control blood pressure, yet a single dose of sunlight can reduce blood pressure at no cost to the taxpayer. —Copyright DUO.