Meteor is an ancient evil
The term meteoropathy comes from the Greek pathos (disease) and meteoros (what is in the sky). This is a condition known since ancient times; already the Greeks and the Romans had identified some meteorological conditions capable of conditioning mood, sensations and emotions.
Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, French and German psychology thoroughly investigated the disorder and described it as a pathology of character.
Currently, meteoropathy is mostly understood as a hypersensitivity towards certain climatic conditions, for example sudden changes in temperature or humidity or the appearance of certain atmospheric phenomena: strong wind and thunderstorms, for example.
Description of meteoropathy
The meteoropaths are subject to annoying symptoms including mood swings, fatigue, anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, difficulty concentrating and headaches related to an atmospheric change. Sometimes they anticipate it, that is, it may happen that meteoropathic people have symptoms that herald atmospheric change.
When a sudden change occurs between one season and another, and we pass, for example, from summer to the typical autumn days, the meteoropath can feel bored, sad and unloaded. Usually these symptoms occur a few days or a few hours before the climatic change, reach an acute phase and finally gradually begin to fade with the end of climate change or with the arrival of a weather phenomenon opposite to that which caused the discomfort.
The meteoropathy, especially in its acute phase, is probably related to a reduced production of adrenaline, noradrenaline and serotonin, hormones that, when adequately produced, help the body to defend itself from stressful stimuli.
There is also a secondary meteoropathy, which can be related to degenerative, respiratory or cardiocirculatory diseases; for example, in those suffering from arthrosis, bronchial asthma or cardiac circulation disorders, sudden climate changes cause an immediate aggravation of the symptoms of primary pathology.
