How climate affects health

“You know, Zosya,” he said at last, “every person, even a party member, is under pressure from an atmospheric column weighing two hundred and fourteen kilos. Didn’t you notice it?

(“Golden calf”)

Modern medicine has defeated smallpox, significantly reduced infant mortality, learned how to perform the most complex operations on the heart and brain (and even a little on the liver!), Extended our lifespan… But there is something over which it is still powerless. This is the climate and the ailments associated with it.

Meteorological dependence is an eternal problem

Medicine is so powerless that the term “weather dependence” even appears in the official medical terminology. Well, a person is tired, feels weak, has a headache. Pressure jumps, whiskey presses, drowsiness, mood is depressed …

This is especially true for residents of the northern regions. Still, man, as a biological species, was formed in the conditions of Africa. In northern latitudes, the atmospheric column is a little different, and it’s cold. And most importantly, there is not enough sun in autumn.

Already in the Middle Ages, medical resorts appeared, located just in the south. They were available, of course, only to the nobility. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, residents of European countries and the Russian Empire regularly traveled “to the waters”. Russian nobles usually traveled to the Caucasus, the Crimea and Italy. Especially often, Petersburgers went to the waters. In winter, the season of balls was held in the capital, and in the summer everyone went to where the sky is clearer and the sun is brighter.

In the last century, a new direction appeared – medical climatology. It studies the influence of various weather and climatic factors on the human body. First of all, irritants. As well as physiological reactions and pathological changes that these stimuli provoke.

In many ways, medical climatology serves to select the optimal resort for a person. Who lived in Soviet times, remembers: sometimes you grab a “burning” ticket, you come to rest, and you turn from the gate. It is forbidden!

Each climate is for its own ailment

For example, the climate of deserts – warm and dry – provokes severe dehydration. Water is excreted mainly in the form of sweat, so the load on the kidneys is reduced. In addition, blood vessels in the kidneys expand and blood flow increases. On the one hand, this leads to the restoration of kidney function, impaired due to illness. On the other hand, such a climate is contraindicated for people who have kidney and urinary tract diseases in the acute stage.

The climate of the steppes is very useful for a person. It is warm and sunny here, and the air humidity is optimal, and there is little dust in the air, and even the herbs smell. Staying in the steppes lowers blood pressure, and koumiss promotes digestion. Therefore, steppe resorts are recommended for people with various diseases of the respiratory tract – bronchitis, pleurisy, tuberculosis, diseases of the ENT organs and the gastrointestinal tract. However, among the contraindications are the same tuberculosis in the stage of formation of caverns, emphysema and asthma with frequent attacks.

The climate of the forests is useful for people with various lung diseases – including various forms of tuberculosis, emphysema, bronchitis, as well as those with hypertension and neuroses. But you should not go there for people with angina pectoris, asthma with frequent attacks, coronary heart disease or various vascular diseases – varicose veins, atherosclerosis of the vessels of the lower extremities, obliterating endarteritis.

It is best for asthmatics to go to the mountains – if the attacks do not happen very often. The mountain climate will also be useful for people with neurosis, blood diseases, and various forms of tuberculosis. But hypertensive patients, people with hepatitis, kidney diseases should not go to the mountains. The mountain climate can also be harmful for uterine fibroids and pregnancy or diabetes.

The subtropical climate – in Russia it is the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus – is useful for people with lung diseases (if it is not tuberculosis), with neuroses and neurasthenia. It is not recommended to go there for people with exacerbations and hypertension.

Winds, storms, hurricanes

However, in addition to such global climatic zones, there are also local weather disturbances that also have a bad effect on us.

For example, before a strong wind, atmospheric pressure always drops. The law of physics is this: if there is less air in some place, then it will soon come there. And the stronger the storm is expected, the stronger the pressure will drop in front of it. Weather-sensitive people will immediately feel it: their pressure will also drop. As a result – drowsiness, lethargy, cerebrovascular accident, headache, hypertensive crises and fainting.

By the way, when the atmospheric pressure decreases, the humidity of the air increases. Hence sweating, fatigue and weakness.

Magnetic storms are, of course, not exactly climate. This is a stream of charged particles that comes from our luminary. But it also affects us not for the better. About 70 percent of heart attacks, hypertensive crises and strokes occur during magnetic storms. By the way, in cities, a magnetic storm is felt more strongly, since there is less oxygen in the air. The lack of oxygen greatly enhances the effect of a magnetic storm. So advice: if you see a four or five in the forecast, go for a walk in some natural area. Fortunately, there are plenty of them in Moscow.

Maya PCHOLKINA.

Photo by Yulia Smagrinskaya and Natalia Bakhareva.

Based on materials “My House Moscow”