METEOROPATHY - HEALTH

What is meteoropathy?

Meteoropathy is considered a set of physical and mental disorders, which occurs following a gradual or sudden climate change, in a specific geographical area.
This condition therefore depends on the variation of one or more meteorological factors, i.e. temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and precipitation (rain, thunderstorms and snow), with the typical effects they produce (ionization, electrical state and turbulence).
It is therefore a general adaptation syndrome where, especially in predisposed subjects, these meteorological agents act as stress factors.
Generally, everything begins near a change in season or climate change: those who suffer from it begin to feel the effects 48 to 72 hours before the change.

The effects produced by atmospheric agents are more evident when several factors (rain, humidity, sudden cold or heat) are involved and occur at the same time.

Who is most at risk?

Some people are more predisposed to meteoropathy: in these subjects seasonal changes and atmospheric variations can lead to the onset of psychological and physical disturbances.
Generally, the people most prone to be affected by the climatic effects are those subjected to intense stress, as well as all those subjects defined as neurolable, that is, with particular sensitivity and emotionality, difficult to adapt to new contexts and events (in practice, they present disturbances to load of the autonomic system).
The instability of the neural system is an increasingly widespread problem, due to the increase of negative elements that can weigh on daily life, such as, for example: stress, bereavement, divorce, difficulty in finding work, professional competitiveness, pollution and traffic.
Regardless of gender and age, therefore, meteoropathic individuals have a greater sensitivity to sudden changes in temperature and changes in atmospheric pressure and humidity (which affects rematic disturbances). The body is subjected to greater stress, which affects the adaptation systems and metabolism.
Usually, meteoropaths are the elderly, young people, women and people with specific chronic or degenerative diseases. For example, hypertensive people have an increased risk of palpitations, tachycardia and hypertensive crisis, when the temperature changes abruptly; On the other hand, those with chronic headache or osteoarticular syndromes see their discomfort worsen, since the pain threshold decreases as the weather parameters change.
In general, therefore, meteoropathy can be divided into:

Primary: it can affect anyone (it is not associated with pre-existing diseases, but purely depends on weather changes); in this case, the secondary disturbances to climatic variations are more attenuated.

Secondary: the disorders are due to a disease whose manifestations worsen with the change of weather; usually, it affects particularly vulnerable subjects, such as the elderly and individuals who have suffered musculoskeletal trauma, heart problems, chronic degenerative diseases, etc.In this case, it is necessary to keep in mind the action of the climate in relation to the underlying pathology.

Possible causes

At the basis of meteoropathy there seems to be the excessive or incorrect production of some hormones by the hypothalamus (in particular serotonin, the main chemical mediator of stress), the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland (thyroxine) and the adrenal gland (catecholamines, other chemical mediators that come into play in times of overexertion or stress).
The factors that can contribute to this type of ailment can be different. Among these, the quantity of natural light to which the organism is exposed is one of the environmental elements that most influence our health.