Human Biometeorology

Most people have encountered it at one time or another. An elderly is complaining about the arthritis acting up and predicts a rainstorm in the near future. Yet there is no cloud in the sky. Migraine sufferers, people with scars, and chronic ailments, have made similar predictions. The belief that weather can influence painful human health conditions has had a long history. It can be traced back at least as far as to the time, when Hippocrates was alive (fourth century B.C.).

However, as most people also have experienced, such predictions are not very reliable. Additionally, the weather has been among other things blamed for many ailments. Could the weather really be responsible for everything that goes wrong in a person's life? Yet, more and more people belief such a link between the weather and their overall health does exist. Furthermore, those with painful health problems now tend to consult the extended weather forecast in an attempt to predict whether they might feel achy in the near future. They arrange their day accordingly and some even pre-medicate. This begs the question, is there any validity to human biometeorology? Or is it just 'hocus-pocus'? A new fad?

Human biometeorology is the study of the relationship between atmospheric conditions and human beings. There are of course some very evident relationships between weather and health. For example, on hot days, people are more likely to suffer from sunburns or heat strokes. Similarly, frostbites and hypothermia are more likely on cold days. Allergies are also a sign of the relationship between weather and health, as the weather has some influence on pollen season. However, researchers in the field of human biometeorology concentrate more on finding links between weather and health. How do atmospheric conditions like temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, and precipitation influence human beings? Why do painful ailments like arthritis and migraines react to changes in such atmospheric conditions?

While this phenomenon has been widely observed, researchers still theorize it is not really the weather causing the ailments to get worse, but the weather simply affecting the symptoms of the ailment. In a nutshell, changes in the weather can cause pain but not the condition itself. Though nobody has yet determined exactly how the pain is caused. Attempts at an explanation of the phenomenon are still mostly theoretical with hardly any solid proof.

For example, some researchers theorize a drop in barometric pressure causes an increase in pain for arthritis sufferers, because the decrease in the air pressure causes the area around the joints to swell thereby irritating the nerves, which results in arthritic pain. However, if indeed such a swelling should occur, it is so miniscule, it is not measurable by existing technology. And even though people with arthritis often complain about pain, when the barometric pressure drops, there are no tests available for daily changes in inflammation, which could positively proof a connection between the drop in barometric pressure and an increased inflammation of the joints (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52133). It should be noted that coincidentally, a drop in barometric pressure usually occurs before a storm approaches. Although, very often such drops in the barometric pressure are fairly small.

Altogether, researchers have not made much progress in the area of human biometeorology. In fact, even though patients with painful health conditions do inquire about it, US researchers have little interest for the subject. This is due to the fact that most evidence is anecdotal at best. Although, research done by John Hollander in the 1960s showed some evidence for a relationship between arthritis pain and the rise in humidity and drop in barometric pressure. Hollander examined arthritis patients, which had been isolated in a sealed chamber, where Hollander could gradually adjust the humidity and barometric pressure.

There are also a great variety of atmospheric conditions, which could influence a human's health. Researchers have to ask themselves, which atmospheric condition under what circumstances could cause what symptom. And even if a theory is established, how can such a relationship be proven? To make matters worse, symptomatic reactions differ from patient to patient. There are even differences as to when the symptoms actually occur in relation to the change in an atmospheric condition. Therefore, potential researchers have to master many obstacles in this field to establish a verifiable research setting that might lead to factual proof of a relationship between the weather conditions and human health. Yet, despite the difficulties, researchers are occasionally intrigued by the phenomenon and make an attempt at studying a component of human biometeorology.

Some researchers argue there might also be a psychological explanation. It might simply be a matter of depression. If the weather is bad, people tend to feel more depressed, therefore notice their pain more than usual. Furthermore, if a patient strongly believes the weather is responsible for the pain, then the pain will indeed occur under the right weather conditions.

Nevertheless, with technological progress researchers might one day have the proper tools to determine with absolute certainty whether there is a connection between weather and human health. Until then it is up to the individual person to decide whether to believe the anecdotal evidence.

There are many proponents of human biometeorology among those suffering from painful health conditions. They follow the weather forecast and attempt to adjust their lives accordingly in order to avoid or reduce pain. In fact, in Germany a 'bio-weather' report is available here. Unfortunately, it also indicates the health consequences a viewer or listener should suffer from under the given weather conditions, which makes it difficult to differentiate between any actual and perceived pain the viewer or listener might suffer from the next day. Nevertheless, if living their lives according to the weather forecast helps those suffering from painful health conditions, human biometeorology should not that quickly discarded as 'hocus-pocus' without solid evidence to the contrary. Even skeptics have to admit, at the very least patients do gain some feeling of empowerment, because they can actively manage their pain, which in turn should make it more bearable.