It is interesting when research is validated. A year or so ago an article appeared in the medical press which showed that thunderstorms in Alberta were associated with an increase in the number of asthmatics presenting in the e.r. of local hospitals. A couple of months earlier a similar paper was published in the U.K. There was conjecture that lightnings split spores and that these triggered asthmatic attacks. Two very different environments, a different set of researchers, but similar results. It was news alright, but to biometeorologists (those of us interested in the effects of weather on health) not as startling as for other people. We have come to believe that if you parse the weather according to synoptic weather analysis, of which the MediClim Index (R) is an example, long years of fact finding have shown that particular patterns are associated with an increase in inflammatory conditions... Some explanations are due. Inflammatory conditions: For many years asthma was treated with "rescue" medications...pills, at first and, more lately, those magic inhalers which saved lives. However, they were not that good at preventing asthmatic attacks. Modern treatment of asthma is based on the understanding that it is an inflammatory condition which affects the bronchial tubing in the lungs. Drugs, in the form of inhalations in metered doses, are used to prevent the onset of the inflammation. (The drugs, by the way, are steroids that are not absorbed into the body but stay in the lungs. And they save lives.) Weather patterns: The Mediclim Index (R), the first synoptic weather analysis to be offered for use by the general public on a personal basis, can predict when the coming weather is likely to trigger an inflammatory condition such as asthma. That's the rationale for this website and the warning emails we offer to send you. Based on years of fact finding, and knowing what weather is coming, we offer to warn you the day before that your asthma is more likely to happen. The MediClim Index (R) provides us with the opportunity to advise you to follow your doctor's advice as closely as possible in the next 24 hours. It's not penicillin, it's not open heart surgery but it is a practical example of the saying that forewarned is forearmed.