Does the Weather Worsen Your Ills? MediClim Service May Alert You
Do certain weather patterns worsen your arthritis or trigger your migraines? An intriguing free service called MediClim sends subscribers alerts about impending weather that may influence common health problems including arthritis, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and migraines.
It’s a controversial idea, but some patients swear that weather triggers effects such as aching joints, crushing migraines, wheezing, or erratic blood glucose readings. MediClim says it builds upon the research of geologist Solco. W. Tromp and colleagues. Tromp was a founding member of the International Society of Biometeorology along with a meteorologist and several physiologists.An article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that MediClim has about 11,000 users. Founder John Bart, M.D. and his partner, meteorologist Denis Bourque, told the Gazette reporter they developed the MediClim algorithm based on temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, and nine other climatic readings.
The service currently only provides forecasts for Canada (south of 60N), the lower 48 states of the USA and the UK, but there are plans to expand to additional European nations this year.
Since the service is free, there’s no harm in signing up and seeing if it works for you. I wouldn’t expect such as a service to be foolproof, however. As Bart told the Gazette: “We’re only as accurate as the weather service and not everybody responds [to climate changes] to the same degree as the next person.”
The service also includes a blog and a forum where patients can connect to compare notes about weather effects, treatments, and whatever else they feel like commenting about. MediClim itself doesn’t offer any treatment advice, but instead repeatedly cautions patients to follow their doctors’ orders.
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