Under Pressure: How Weather Affects our Health

As summer winds down, some people are celebrating the approach of fall, while others are dreading the shorter, colder days. We know that weather can affect our mood — maybe we're extra irritable when it's hot, or gloomy when it's gray — but it can also influence our overall health. On this episode, a look at how weather affects well-being and health, from its impact on menstrual cycles to chronic conditions like asthma and pain.

• Can extreme heat affect your menstrual cycle? The internet thinks so. In June, , a strange phenomenon went viral on social media — thousands of women experienced unexpected changes to their periods as temperatures soared. For some, it came early; for others, late. Still others missed it entirely, or reported having a second period shortly after their first. Pulse producer Nichole Currie investigates the potential connection.
• Writer Alison Espach was taking a dip in the ocean one summer when something strange happened — she emerged covered head-to-toe in hives. She dismissed it as a fluke, but then it happened again when she swam in a lake, and again in a river. We talk with Espach about the bizarre culprit: her sudden allergy to cold.
• Heat waves don't just make for uncomfortable temperatures — they often lead to poor air quality, which, in many places, has been exacerbated by wildfires. Pulse reporter Alan Yu talks with patients affected by air pollution, why it's dangerous to our health, and the people working to better track air quality.
• We talk with writer Lorraine Boissoneault about her new book of essays, "Body Weather: Notes on Chronic Illness in the Anthropocene," which explores the ways in which her own chronic illnesses mirror the weather changes wrought by climate change.
• Psychologist Trevor Harley explains the science of how the weather affects our mental and physical health, the evolutionary roots of our sensitivity to the weather, and how we can use that knowledge to improve how we feel. His new book is “Head in the Clouds: How the Weather Affects Our Minds and Mental Health.”