In every family there is someone who knows when the weather is about to change...because one of their joints hurt. They're usually older people because it seems that the wear and tear of everyday living sensitizes their back, or fingers, wrists, shoulders, or knees, to fluctuations in the weather. For a long time doctors have tried to pin down which weather parameter is the cause, the root of the trigger of arthritis. Is it humidity, or temperature or atmospheric pressure? But they have been frustrated in their efforts because no two experimenters have come to the same conclusion. The reason for this is simple. Looking at one of these measurements alone will not do the trick. To judge the influence of weather you have to look at several parameters at the same time...It's called synoptic weather analysis, and the MediClim Index (R) is the first example to be offered to the general public on a personal, daily basis. Think of the weather as the movement of a mass of air across the country. The air mass has measurable characteristics...how dense it is, how fast it moves, how its winds are behaving, how wet it is, how hot or cold it is, and where it is going. Looking at these factors all together is the basis of synoptic weather analysis. Now the beauty of the MediClim Index (R) is that many, many years of fact finding have associated changes in weather (its make up and movement...synoptic analysis) with changes in how people feel. In other words which health problems are more likely to occur when the weather changes in a particular way. Meteorologists can tell which weather pattern is going to pass through, around, over and under you...they predict the future. If you know what weather is coming and what it might do to you, then it is our contention that you have an opportunity to stick more closely to your doctor's advice and ward off the problem. The MediClim Index (R), which associates health problems such as arthritis with weather changes, is not penicillin, it's not open heart surgery, but it is a way of implementing the adage that forewarned is forearmed.