Huge storms on the face of the sun are now known to affect our intuitive powers. US scientists have shown that powerful cosmic rays from solar turbulence can reduce our psychic abilities. Closer to home the medical profession is being forced to accept the evidence that the weather has much more effect on our health and well-being than their traditional 'germs and genetics' model allows.
The new science of biometereology was, though, predicted 2,500 years ago by the founder of modern medicine, Hippocrates, who recommended that his students study 'what effect each season of the year can produce'. Such weather-related wisdom was soon dismissed as old wives' tales.
High-tech research has once again caught up with legend and superstition to establish that our unseen abilities and mental and physical health are affected by both local and interplanetary weather. Researcher Pat Thomas has looked at the latest evidence of what makes us feel 'Under the weather' and discovered that:
• One in three of us is weather sensitive. Women and children particularly
• Scars can act as weather forecasters. They tingle when rain is expected
• Half of migraine sufferers believe weather triggers their headaches
• Cold weather causes more deaths than hot
• Strokes are 35 per cent more common in winter than summer
• Office workers who spend up to 90 per cent of their time indoors are prone to Sick Building Syndrome
• Climate change has been connected to Seasonal Affective Disorder, disturbed sleep, fatigue, nervousness, respiratory problems and lack of concentration
Pat Thomas is the author of Under the Weather - How the weather and climate affect our health (Fusion Press £10.99)
EVERY CLOUD
In the US, fear of thunderstorms ranks as a top ten phobia. Here are some other morbid fears, brought on by the weather:
Astraphobia - trepidation at thunder and lightning
Ancraophobia - dread of wind
Lilapsophobia - terror of tornadoes and hurricanes
Antlophobia - foreboding of floods
Nephophobia - fear of fog
Psychrophobia - panic at the on set of cold
Thermophobia - horror of heat
Pluviophobia - alarm during rain
FASHION CONSCIOUS
The fashion industry is a massive environmental polluter as well a major employer of sweat shop labour. More chemicals are used to grow cotton than any other crop. But Dutch designers, Kuyichi, are bucking this trend. They are paying Peruvian cotton growers 30 per cent above the market rate to ensure organic growing conditions and high standards of worker welfare. Kuyichi is named after the rainbow god of Peru. More information: www.kuyichi.com
