Does your arthritis act up when it's cold and wet?
Does warm air trigger your migraines?
A new e-mail alert will soon be available to warn you when the coming weather could spell trouble for your particular pains.
The Canadian Medical Meteorology Network, founded in 1992 by a medical doctor and a meteorologist, has created a weather-health index called MediClim, which incorporates factors known to affect health, such as humidity, barometric pressure and temperature.
Co-founder Dr. John Bart said the MediClim index is similar to the UV index, which explains the strength of the sun's daily UV rays. "It's not penicillin. It's not open-heart surgery. But it is another tool in linking our health with the environment in a way that people themselves can use," Bart said.
North Americans who suffer from arthritis, migraines, heart disease, diabetes or asthma can offer their e-mail address at mediclim.com. The alert service is expected to be ready by October. After anonymously registering their condition, postal code, sex and age, the network will send an e-mail a day in advance of certain weather conditions that could exacerbate what ails them. You can then discuss with your doctor ways to prevent it, Bart said. For example, he would advise patients who have migraines to avoid other potential triggers that day, such as alcohol or chocolate.
Other agencies help people make practical use of the connection between weather and health. Germany's national weather service issues daily bulletins for every large city, Bart said. In the U.S., the Weather Channel offers an "aches and pains index," calculated using barometric pressure, humidity, chance of precipitation, temperature and wind.
- Metroland newswire
