Under the weather
We often hear about that strange seasonal affective
disorder (SAD), which is depression brought about by deprivation of light.
But SAD is only one aspect of the repercussion of climatic conditions
on the human spirit.
Indeed, Hippocrates in his essay "Of airs, waters
and places", written in the fourth century BC, remarks on how the weather
affects people: "In towns frequently exposed to winds, such as those which
blow between the east and the west, and which are sheltered from the north
winds, the slightest cause can change sores into ulcers. The inhabitants
lack force and vigour, the women are sickly and voluntarily barren, the
children are attacked with convulsions or sacral disease, the men are
subject to dysentery, to long fevers in the winter." Centuries later,
Voltaire commented that in London the east wind was responsible for suicides.
In Antarctica in 1912, Robert Scott and his companions,
although only a dozen miles from a food depot, lost their capacity for
clear thinking and action after being caught in a blizzard. We cannot
discount the weather conditions when we discuss variations in different
sicknesses.
It has been reported that dry climates are favourable
and humid ones unfavourable to the progress of pneumonia. Women are more
susceptible than men to this affliction, the difference being attributed
to the fact that they had to wear more clothes. Any factor that affects
the loss of body heat also affects recovery from febrile conditions. Moreover,
abrupt changes in the weather may have effects on humoral and cellular
immunity, which influence respiratory function.
In general, it is believed that the ease or difficulty
in losing body heat determines physical and mental exertion. When obstacles
are placed in the way of heat transfer all body functions and general
vitality are reduced and there is a trend towards a vegetative existence.
When heat loss is facilitated, however, growth, development and daily
activity are increased, to our advantage.
When climatic conditions involve relatively large
variations in atmospheric pressure, body chilling is likely to occur,
bringing more colds, sinusitis, bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, and even
tuberculosis. It has been noted that an increase in appendicitis, eclampsia
and rheumatic disorders may follow the passage of storm fronts over a
region. Under milder conditions, sunshine, rainfall and wind velocity
appear to exert a minor influence on bodily function, but may have more
impressive effects on mental stability. Toxic goitre and diabetes have
been attributed in part to a climatic drive which forces people into efforts
to make more haste, so that they outstrip their capacity to adapt.
Mental and emotional instability seems to be influenced
by severe instability in the weather. With the approach of falling barometric
pressure, many people experience a sense of futility and an inability
to perform with their usual mental efficiency, although they may not realise
its origin. Children may become irritable and petulant, adults grow quarrelsome.
With the passing of the atmospheric depression, mental depression makes
way for confidence, even exuberance.
At times of low ebb, individuals may turn to pharmacological
resources. It is true that drugs of the amphetamine family, in particular,
bring enormous relief when one is under the weather, but to have recourse
to them without pressing need is dangerous. Even the safer ones, such
as methylphenidate, must not be abused, and the more hazardous ones like
"ecstasy" must be kept out of the hands of adolescents.
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I
am reminded that the celebration which we call in modern parlance Mother's
Day or Mothering Sunday falls this year on 10 March. It was originally
entitled Mid-Lent Sunday, corresponding to the fourth Sunday in Lent,
or dominica refectionis, since the text for the day is the feeding of
the five thousand.