It was an unseasonably warm winter in Toronto the Good, which resulted in two phenomena that, on the surface, are not related.

Serotonin and norepinephrine appear to be part of a system in the brain and spinal cord that modifies pain working through what are known as the descending inhibitory pain pathways. In chronic pain states these may become dysfunctional so that sufferers feel pain more than people who aren't sick. This bears out a clinical impression that once people have to endure prolonged pain (for whatever reason) they are more sensitive than the rest of the population to other painful stimuli.

There are three units working on the effects of weather on health. One is in Germany, one is in the U.K., and there is Mediclim in the Americas. We each have a different focus. The German Weather Service, which is intimitaly connected to the university system there, is very bound up with the effects of heat on the human body. As usual, the Germans are looking ahead since global warming is becoming a reality (whatever its cause.) The Brits have concentrated on the link between weather and the exacerbation of COPD.

In the old days... a few hundred years ago... there were two conflicting theories as to the origin of sickness. GALEN'S idea was that sickness was an imbalance of the body's four basic principles: blood (wet hot humour), phlegm (wet cold), choler (dry hot) and melancholy (dry cold). If things got out of balance there were measures you could take to restore order such as bloodletting, purging and vomiting and no doubt a few we've lost track of and would rather not resurrect.

We are in the process of updating the mediclim website to cope with a large future expansion that is in the offing (details in the next couple of weeks.) We have learnt that a few subscribers are not receiving regular Health Forecasts. If you are one of these few please contact me at drjohnb@mediclim.com so that we can remedy the error.

Mediclim has been up and running since Jan 2009. Soon we will have sent out 5,000,000 Health Forecasts to our 27,500 subscribers, whose numbers increase daily.
We've had to ask for a small yearly subscription fee of $20 ( to register simply go to www.mediclim.com/membership.) I'd like to explain the value that Mediclim brings and how this new subscription fee will help us to continue to offer this service to our existing and new subscribers.

We have taken care to position ourselves as a tool that can be used to reduce health related absenteeism from work. In the long run we know this can only benefit employees and employers.

Here is some background information that speaks to the value of our initiative:

I qualified as a physician in 1969. That's a long time ago. I'm happy to say I'm still working as a family doc. It's great. I now treat the children of children I first met in 1973 when I moved to Toronto the Good and, really and truly, my job is its own reward.
But things have changed. Have they ever. For instance:
When I started out the sister on a ward was queen. If she said jump everyone, and I mean everyone, from professors of medicine to medical and nursing students, jumped. The only question was how high.

In times past salt was a commodity as precious as gold. Whole fortunes were made from the salt trade and at least one city, Salzburg in Germany, owes its name and early prosperity to it.

I thought you might like to know what the results of circadian rhythms are on our bodies, so here goes.
0200 our deepest sleep
0430 our lowest body temperature
0645 the sharpest rise in our blood pressure
0730 Melatonin secretion stops
0830 bowel movement likely
0900 highest testosterone secretion in males
1430 best coordination
1530 fastest reaction time
1700 greatest cardiovascular efficiency and muscle strength
1830 highest blood pressure
1900 highest body temperature
2100 Melatonin secretion starts
2230 bowel movements suppressed
2400 coach turns into a pumpkin