In our drive to achieve good health, we consult a variety of experts, but how many of us think of consulting the weatherman?

While the earliest physicians knew that the weather had a profound effect on health, this knowledge had been consigned to the dustbin of ‘folk medicine’ along with cures such as leeches and maggots. But not any more. Biometeorology is a new and expanding science that has shown our health to be inextricably linked to atmospheric conditions. Migraines can be triggered by cold and winds, stormy weather really does bring aches and pains and cholesterol levels rise as the temperature drops.