Meteosensitivity
Headache, weakness, fatigue on the eve of weather changes worry almost every second person, especially the elderly. It is known that the weather is determined by many factors: atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, ozone and oxygen content in the air, radioactivity, magnetic storms. It has been proven that each of them has a direct or indirect effect on our well-being and health.
Weather factors affect us in different ways. Temperature, humidity, wind, sunlight, atmospheric electricity, radioactivity affect our skin. Through the lungs we perceive temperature, humidity, wind, air purity, its ionization. Noise, smell, temperature, chemical composition of the air affect vision, hearing, smell, taste.
Many animals also feel changes in weather conditions. They are a kind of living barometers. Cats curl up in a ball when it gets cold. When rain is approaching, ants hastily hide. Long before the approaching storm, jellyfish float out to sea from the shores.
Our body reacts to weather changes by restructuring its biological systems, which makes us feel unwell. However, such reactions are not yet considered a serious problem by doctors. Meteosensitivity becomes really dangerous if, in response to atmospheric changes, the body produces pathological reactions: chronic diseases worsen, unexpected malfunctions in the heart, stomach and lungs appear. These problems can occur even before the weather changes as a kind of signal reaction. According to scientists, outbreaks of influenza, for example, are brought precisely on days unfavorable in terms of weather conditions. This dangerous period of time falls on three to four days before and several days after the onset of changes.
Statistics show that in developed countries, about a third of men and almost half of women have increased sensitivity to changes in weather conditions. There are significantly more weather-sensitive people among patients, especially those with pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases.
The well-being of people suffering from cardiovascular diseases often worsens a few hours before a sharp change in temperature and atmospheric pressure. They experience headaches, weakness, anxiety, joint pain, and angina attacks, even a change in wind direction can provoke them. One of the most unfavorable factors for people with heart disease is high air humidity, and cases of sudden death often coincide with an approaching thunderstorm.
Excess weight and endocrine disorders during puberty, pregnancy, and menopause contribute to increased weather sensitivity. Increased weather sensitivity can suddenly occur after a head injury, flu, angina, or pneumonia. Interestingly, in some people it is even inherited.
In healthy people, a change in weather is accompanied by rapid changes in hormone production, platelet count, blood clotting, and enzyme activity. These changes are a kind of protective reaction of the body to adverse conditions. In patients, such a restructuring of the body is delayed or does not occur at all.
Not many people consult a doctor with weather-related ailments. Therefore, it is important to know how to behave in such cases:
1. With a sharp change in weather, you should reduce physical activity, you should avoid intense mental work that can cause fatigue.
2. On these days, you should not overload yourself with food, abuse meat, fatty and fried foods, you should exclude spicy seasonings and alcoholic beverages. It is better to give preference to a dairy-vegetable diet. On days of sudden weather changes, with insomnia and increased arousal, you can take sedatives, such as valerian drops.