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This is an excerpt from the book "The Ion Miracle, Benefits of Negative Ions on Physical and Mental Well-Being" by Jean-Yves Cote where he talks about Fred Soyka's experience of Winds That Kill.

Fred Soyka’s Experience

Mr. Soyka worked in New York for an American multi-national corporation. In 1961, he accepted a transfer to Geneva, where he lived for eight years.

Except for a persistent bad cold, the first year of his stay was enjoyable. In the second year, the cold worsened, and he began suffering stomach and headaches as well. He felt nauseous after meals, tried to avoid social gatherings and experienced diminished sex drive. Finally, he felt so unwell that he decided to see a doctor. He had poor digestion and felt run down, out of shape, anxious and stressed. His doctor referred him to a gastroenterologist, who diagnosed a malfunctioning gall bladder and prescribed its removal.

Before the surgery, Soyka went on a two-week trip to New York. By the second day, the symptoms that had troubled him in Geneva had disappeared. He felt great. On one occasion, he ate fast food and digested it without difficulty. Back in Geneva, he called his specialist and told him that his gall bladder had functioned perfectly in New York and that the diagnosis was wrong.

Within two weeks, however, all his symptoms had returned. His doctor sent him to another specialist, who told him that, like many other people in Geneva, he was suffering hypothyroidism. The specialist prescribed stimulants for his thyroid, and a few days later Soyka felt much better. He was now taking tranquilizers to calm his nerves during periods of anxiety and stimulants to shake his feeling of apathy. Sometimes he took sleeping pills. He began to depend on pills the way other people depend on alcohol.

In 1964, Soyka became vice-president of his company, but his health problems persisted. Most of the time, he felt well and full of energy. But on some days, without apparent reason, he felt tense and anxious, unable to function normally. These periods were marked by insomnia and followed by moments of hyperactivity or total lassitude and paralyzing despair. The simplest tasks, such as making a phone call or putting out the garbage, seemed overwhelming.

A strange fact had escaped Soyka’s attention. Whenever he left Geneva on business trips or family vacations, his appetite returned. He could have digested nails without heartburn. His mood and energy level recovered too. Stranger yet, these recoveries occurred even when his travels took him elsewhere within Europe.

In 1965, his doctor suggested that his disorders were psychosomatic. For the next two years, Soyka spent four hours a week consulting a psychiatrist, who examined such issues as his irrational fears and his real or supposed guilt. In the past, Soyka had scorned psychiatric help, seeing it as a sign of weakness and of an unwillingness to solve personal problems. Now, on the brink of suicide, he agreed to therapy. But after two years of psychiatric care, his health had not improved. He wrote in his diary: "Very ill, depressed, feel discouraged," " Sleepless night again! Felt like the dead, and wish I were." He worried about everything, and even worried about worry itself.

During his eighth year in Geneva, in spite of professional success, he again felt bad enough to consult a doctor, turning this time to Dr. Wissmer, a physician with many foreign patients. Wissmer told him that many of his patients suffered from similar symptoms: colds, tiredness, poor digestion, depression, diminished sex drive. Wissmer believed this phenomenon was related to the electricity in the air in Geneva. The majority of his patients not only suffered from the same ills as Soyka, but also experienced similar bouts of irrational behavior. The divorce rate among foreigners, for example, was abnormally high. The men complained that their spouses or partners no longer excited them, when in fact they were experiencing diminished sex drive. Some embarked on new adventures or short-lived sexual frenzies, only to return to their former listlessness. The women complained that they felt anxious and unhappy, and blamed their distress on a lack of interest in sex. Wissmer had also noted other problems that were common to foreigners, such as immoderate alcohol consumption and tension. The Swedish wife of a businessman had caught a cold on her arrival in Geneva and continued to have it for the next ten years. She often felt she had changed: she yelled at the children, criticized her husband, ate too much and became increasingly overweight. She became so depressed and ill tempered that she couldn’t stand herself. Before arriving in Geneva, this woman had lived happily in several European and Middle-Eastern countries.

Wissmer had noticed that patients who suffered Soyka’s symptoms all seemed to visit him at the same time. His practice would operate at a normal pace for a while, until suddenly and without warning, all his foreign patients would call in on the same day.

Winds that kill

“You shall not judge when the Sharav blows.” -Talmud

Soyka’s symptoms are shared by many people who live in areas of the world that experience dry winds, called witches’ winds in several languages. These symptoms also occur during the full moon and before storms. Popular expressions record our sensitivity to atmospheric conditions: when we’re unwell, we feel “under the weather;” before a storm approaches, we “feel it in our bones.” Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, had also noticed a correlation between temperature and certain diseases.

The lines quoted from the Talmud at the beginning of the chapter were probably written in Israel, where a desert wind blows that is called the Sharav in Hebrew and the Khamsin in Arabic. It is one of a number of witches’ winds, of which the following are the most familiar:

One day, Soyka called Helen Eliat van de Velde, a psychologist who had studied throughout Europe before settling in New York. She had noticed that on certain days, the majority of her patients felt optimistic and enthusiastic, while on others, the majority felt depressed and unhappy. She had kept note of the temperature, but could find no correlation between the weather and her clients’ mood swings.

While Soyka was with her, her phone rang constantly. She told him that her patients all experienced crises at the same time. Earlier in the day, a patient had spit blood from a ruptured stomach ulcer. At lunch, van de Velde was interrupted by a patient, a beautiful model in her twenties, who said that she felt unable to face the cameras that day. A violinist couldn’t play because his hands were trembling and clammy. “A hurricane is blowing in from the Caribbean,” the psychologist said, opening the window. “I know the sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day, but come listen.”

From outside, Soyka heard the voices of angry taxi drivers, arguing over the sound of the traffic. “ I tell you, my patients and the taxi drivers are barometers. My patients are more prone to problems and the taxi drivers get more aggressive whenever the weather is about to change (Soyka 12).” That night, the temperature changed and Soyka slept badly, experiencing the symptoms he had suffered in Geneva. In the morning, the newspapers reported that a storm had changed its course in the Caribbean and threatened the southern states.

The Swiss blame many unusual occurrences on the Foehn: suicides, murders, car accidents, domestic disputes. Surgeons in the Munich area postpone surgeries when the Foehn is forecast.

Soyka had a friend in Munich who occasionally suffered from insomnia. During those sleepless nights, she would hear the whistles of trains passing in the distance. The sound was carried from the south by the Foehn. Another of his friends felt literally suffocated whenever the Foehn blew. To find relief, she would walk along a bridge at the foot of a waterfall. Looking at her, one might have thought she was a fascinated passer-by, enjoying the view of the bubbling water; in fact, she was there to catch her breath. Half an hour by the falls would ease her breathing for several hours to come.

One may wonder what the moon, the witches’ winds and oncoming storms all have in common, other than the effect they have on people.

Since its discovery by Benjamin Franklin, researchers have shown that electricity affects plant and animal life. In 1775, Father Giambattista Becceria of the university at Turin wrote: ''Nature makes great use of atmospheric electricity to develop vegetation (Métadier 9).” During the 19th century, various researchers studied the influence of electricity on plant growth. In 1899, Elster and Geitel discovered the existence of ions, but the systematic study of the effects of ions on life only began three decades later.

In 1930, Hansell, an American researcher, observed that a laboratory assistant who worked next to an electrostatic generator experienced mood swings when the generator changed polarity. When the polarity of the generator was negative, he felt euphoric and full of energy. When the polarity was positive, however, his mood darkened and he felt depressed and aggressive.

Extensive research has since been conducted to investigate electric polarity in the air. In the 1970’s, Soyka could already count more than 5000 related projects, studies and experiments. Almost all concluded that negatively charged ions enhance our well-being, while positively charged ions are harmful to us.

As we know, atoms consist of a positively-charged core surrounded by negatively-charged electrons. Because the electrons and the core carry an equal charge, atoms are neutral. When electrons are freed from the core, however, the atom becomes positive and is called a positive ion or pos-ion. If, on the other hand, the neutral atom captures an electron, it is negatively charged, and is called a negative ion or neg-ion. If this positive or negative atom (positive ion or negative ion) is incorporated in a molecule, the molecule becomes an ion, and if this ion is fixed in a group of molecules, such as soot, dust, or liquid droplets, they also become positive or negative ions. Following standard usage, any small particle carrying an electric charge will be referred to as an ion throughout this book.

In nature, the usual ion ratio is 12 pos-ions for 10 neg-ions. But these proportions vary enormously from place to place according to barometric pressure, prevailing winds, the radioactivity of the ground and pollution. Places that have high concentrations of neg-ions, such as sea shores, mountains, rivers and waterfalls, attract us when we want to enjoy rest and relaxation. Before an electrical storm, when the atmosphere is heavy, it is charged with pos-ions. After the storm, the air feels invigorating and we often breathe deeply to enjoy its sweetness. At this time, the air is highly charged with neg-ions. During rush hour, city air is almost completely depleted of neg-ions. Because of the so-called Faraday Cage Effect, the air in cars is also poor in neg-ions. We will discuss each of these points farther on.

Soyka met a young Montreal couple at the start of their honeymoon on the Riviera. They were quite unhappy. The groom, a young lawyer, as enthusiastic as one would expect on such an occasion, suddenly began arguing with his wife on the day after their arrival. He felt acutely tense, and then extremely tired. The Mistral, the witches’ winds of southern France, was blowing. A few days later, the couple moved on to continue their honeymoon under other, less romantic skies. The husband’s good mood returned and the honeymoon ended pleasantly. Winston Churchill chose the dates of his trips to the southern coast of France carefully, in order to avoid the season of the Mistral.

On the West Coast of Canada and the United States, the Chinook blows down from the mountains at the beginning of spring. Although it is a welcome harbinger of spring, doctors report an increase in colds and other respiratory problems during this period. Soyka knew an industrialist who lived in this area. For ten years, he not only suffered the usual seasonal colds, but also felt anxious and tense when the Chinook blew. He learned to plan vacation trips in spring, in order to avoid the windy period.

The Santa Ana, the witches’ winds of California, blows from Hollywood and Los Angeles down to San Diego. The belief that the Santa Ana causes violence, murders and suicides is so widespread that screenwriters developed a police show in which the wind is responsible for the crimes committed by the characters.

Besides the Foehn, the Sharav or Khamsin is undoubtedly the most studied of the witches’ winds, due in large part to the work of Dr. Sulman of the University of Jerusalem. Sulman studied the effects of the Sharav on human behavior. He began by collecting anecdotal evidence of these effects. A shoemaker showed him sales figures that were 300% higher during Sharav, when people found that their feet swelled and they needed larger shoes. Psychiatrists told him that their patients tended to be more distressed than usual at these times. An insurance salesman claimed that the accident rate increased by 100%, and the police reported that acts of aggression such as domestic violence also rose during Sharav. Military officers said that soldiers stationed on desert frontiers for long periods of time became lethargic and depressed. In some translations of the book of Isaiah, the Sharav is described as “bad” and “destructive”.

During earlier research in the field of gynecology, Sulman had shown that serotonin influences the human body and emotions. He went on to conduct a four-year study to determine the serotonin level in healthy subjects who were not sensitive to the Sharav. He selected subjects from his personnel. Daily urine tests were taken to measure how much serotonin is manufactured by the body and how much of it is transformed into in an inoffensive substance commonly referred to as 5HA. The study concluded that serotonin is only present in the urine of healthy human subjects when they are anxious or under great emotional stress.

We have long known that the body produces adrenaline in response to known stressors that are usually external, such as aggression or the writing of an exam. While adrenaline is produced in response to dangers perceived by the five senses, serotonin seems to be excreted in response to dangers that are imperceptible to the senses. For example, emotional stress and anxiety seem to produce serotonin.

After this study, Sulman began testing Sharav victims. In little time he had recruited more than 200 volunteers. They were men and women, young and old, of all social classes and from various countries, all so affected by Sharav that they were ready to participate as test subjects in the hope of finding relief. For a year, the volunteers had to come in twice every day to submit urine samples for analysis. The study concluded that these people produced 1000% more serotonin during Sharav, while their ability to break down serotonin into the inoffensive 5HA only doubled, leaving a significant serotonin surplus in their bodies. But how could the wind produce such effects?

In the 1950s and 1960s, Krueger, an American researcher, established a link between the production of serotonin and the presence of pos-ions. On the basis of Krueger’s theory, Sulman recruited physicists and meteorologists to measure the electrical nature of the Sharav. On days when the Sharav doesn’t blow, the ion count in Jerusalem is generally between 1,000 and 2,000 positive and negative ions per cubic centimeter. Two days before the Sharav, the quantity of ions per cubic centimeter doubles and the proportion of pos-ions increases considerably. The conclusion was obvious: the only variable that could explain the abnormal production of serotonin in people sensitive to the Sharav was the very great concentration of pos-ions in the air during the wind’s passage.

Dr. Rehn, a German surgeon, practiced in a hospital in Freiburg, near Munich, where the cases of postoperative hemorrages were especially frequent during Foehn weather. He later moved to Ettenheim, 40 kilometers from Freiburg. There, citizens were protesting against a factory that produced red clouds of smoke. Rehn noted that the hospital reported no cases of thrombosis. The government obliged the factory to clean up its emissions, and the red cloud disappeared. At the same time, the rates of hemorrhage increased, matching those of Freiburg. Interestingly, a doctor named Spitzer had measured the air electricity prior to the change and had noted a very high concentration of neg-ions. After the disappearance of the polluting cloud, Ettenheim also experienced the effects of the Foehn, like other cities in the area.

The so-called witches’ winds that we have described above are all charged with pos-ions. The negative effects attributed to these winds can be explained by the fact that they are over-charged with pos-ions and almost depleted of neg-ions. The witches’ winds originate in the high atmosphere. As they approach the earth, they come into contact with other masses. The resulting friction seems to destroy neg-ions. Some of these winds, such as the Sharav, travel over dry land where they lift a lot of dust. Neg-ions, which are primarily small oxygen ions, combine easily with dust and are soon entirely absorbed, leaving only pos-ions in the wind. The fact that the neg-ions have been leeched from the air because they have attached themselves to dust and moisture may explain the discomfort felt in cities and prior to storms when the air is humid. Storms break when the atmosphere is saturated and heavily charged with pos-ions. Since the earth is negatively charged, it attracts these positive charges. Lighting and rain rid the atmosphere of pos-ions and create an overproduction of neg-ions, leaving the air fresh and invigorating. The same phenomena occur alongside waterfalls and rivers and by the seashore, especially when the surf is up. As water droplets move through the air, they cast off a fine spray that is charged with neg-ions. Since learning this, I have thought that having a water fountain near one’s home is a precious asset.

Effects similar to those produced by the witches’ winds have been recorded prior to storms and during the full moon. Soyka documents interesting events that seem to be related to the lunar cycle (p. 60-61). Dr. Shealy, a neurosurgeon and director of the Pain Clinic at La Crosse, Wisconsin, questioned his colleagues and discovered that severe hemorrhages are most common when the moon is full. He also studied data from blood banks, discovering that the demand for blood transfusions is consistently higher during the full moon and the few days which follow.
At the Tallahassee Hospital in Florida, Dr. Edson Andrew kept statistics about some 1,000 patients he had operated on, and noted that 82% of serious postoperative hemorrhages occured when the moon is full.

A few years ago, I met a telephone operator who handled international calls. She told me that during the time of the full moon, there were many more requests for long-distance calls and that people often behaved irrationally, making incoherent remarks and speaking rudely. For her, full-moon evenings were a terrible strain.

Dr. Sulman wanted to understand what causes repeated miscarriages. He assumed that women who repeatedly miscarry produce too much serotonin. He initially experimented on pregnant rats, which invariably aborted after being injected with serotonin. Afterwards, he conducted a study with 20 women who wanted to abort and had received their physicians’ consent to do so. These women were given drugs that stimulate the body to produce an overdose of serotonin. In all cases, the patients aborted. He continued his investigation with women who had suffered repeated miscarriages and discovered high levels of serotonin in their urine. He proposed treatments that also sensitized husbands to the situation, involving them in practical details such as urine collection. When the women felt less pressured and anxious, their serotonin levels dropped. Drugs that inhibit the production of serotonin made it possible for many of these women to give birth to normal, healthy children. This, like other studies reported above, suggests that people sensitive to pos-ions produce a high quantity of serotonin. Sulman estimates that approximately 30% of the population is affected by temperature changes, witches’ winds and the full moon, all of which create high concentrations of pos-ions. The fact that more children are born when the moon is full may be due to the abundance of pos-ions in the air during this period. In its full phase, the moon puts pressure on the ionosphere (which begins approximately 40 kilometers above ground). Because the ground is negatively charged, the pos-ions in the ionosphere are drawn to the ground, passing through our atmosphere and accumulating more intense positive charges on the way.

Reliable equipment is now available to measure the quantity of ions in a given environment. Whatever theories researchers propose to explain the presence or absence of ions, we now know with certainty that positive and negative ions exist, and we are able to measure their concentrations and recognize their effects on human behavior and health. These discoveries are all the more important because we live and work in artificial environments that are depleted of neg-ions and thus detrimental to our well being and health. Fortunately, we are able to recognize the problem. In many cases, we can also resolve it by eliminating the sources of pos-ion production and creating neg-ion generators, such as water fountains and ionizers.

The book is available from Negions.com

[Editors Note: A good, very simple and inexpensive Air Ionizer that creates negative ions as nature does was developed in Singapore/Asia as a result of the Sars Epidemic - a device was required that would clean the air of bugs. The generation of negative ions is a side effect and it has the additional benefit in that it does not blacken the walls and you can optionally add a few drops of aromatherapy oils to the water to freshen your home or work environment.]