Demonstration of Statistically Significant Correlations between
8 and 12 kHz Atmosferics and Sudden Deafness
G . R u h e n stro th -B a u e ra, K. M eesb, R. S andhagenb, H . B au m er, and B. F ilipiak 0
a Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Arbeitsgruppe Experimentelle Medizin,
D-8033 Martinsried bei München
b Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenklinik, Klinikum Großhadern, D-8000 München 70
c MEDIS-Institut der Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung (GSF),
D-8042 Neuherberg bei München
Z. Naturforsch. 42c, 999—1000 (1987); received October 24, 1986/February 26, 1987
Sudden Deafness, Atmosferics
In the last few years we have shown that atmosferics of different frequencies correlate with the
onset of epileptic fits, heart infarcts and with the intensity of an inflammation reaction in rats.
Now we show that sudden deafnesses are related (multiple R2—0.08) with the onset of 12 kHz in
the first part of the day before the sudden deafness and the absence of 8 kHz in the first part of the
day of this event.
T he investigation of relations betw een w eather
and diseases has a long history [1, 2]. H ow ever, the
co rrelatio n s found betw een the so called classical
p ara m ete rs such as te m p e ra tu re , hum idity et cetera
have always b een relatively low in com parison with
th e fact o f a clear cut accum ulation of certain dis­
eases on certain days [3, 4], In the last two years,
h ow ever, we fou n d in p a rt rem arkably high correla­
tions w ith epileptic fits [5], h ea rt infarct [6 ], the in­
tensity of inflam m ation reaction [7] on the one hand
and atm osferics on th e o th e r hand. A tm osferics are
electro m ag n etic altern atin g oscillations in the range
b etw een 5 and 50 kH z derived from certain air mass
m ovem ents w ithin th e tro p o sfere [8 ]. Now we will
describe a fu rth e r case of such a relation: sudden
deafn ess (S D ) and 12 kH z rates in the first p art of the
day b efore th e SD and the absence of 8 kH z in the
first p a rt o f the day of SD.
Material and M ethods
1. Patients
W e ev a lu ated m ore than 500 cases of SD of 5
o to rh in olaryngology clinics in M unich in 1984.
T o m ake sure we chose only cases with a sudden
beginning an d w ith a clinical confirm ation of an SD
afte r a d etailed exam ination [ 1 0 ] from this num ber.
F u rth e rm o re we to o k only cases w here at least the
day of the beginning of the SD was unequivocally
know n. U sing th ese criteria 203 cases rem ained. The
Reprint requests to Prof. Dr. G. Ruhenstroth.
Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, D-7400Tübingen
0341 - 0382/87/0700 - 0999 $ 0 1 .3 0 /0
SD o ccu rred on 155 days of th e y ear; 113 days had
o ne SD and only 4 days had m o re th an tw o SD.
T h erefo re we divided th e m aterial into one group
w ith o ne o r m ore SD a day and a second group with
no SD.
2. Electrical m easurem ent techniques
W e m easu red th e atm osferics by m eans o f tw o 7elem en t ferrite an ten n as w ith p ream p lifiers, installed
17 m eters above g ro u n d level. T h e received signals
w ere co n d u cted by coaxial cables to th e m easuring
and recording in stru m en tatio n . Im pulses w ere d e ­
tectab le w ithin ap proxim ately 500—600 km aro u n d
th e receiving statio n . Ionosferic reflections play no
role w hen using this arran g em en t; m easu rem en ts
w ere co m p ared principally w ith gro u n d w ave p ro p a ­
gation. E ven so, th e in p u t sensitivity of th e in stalla­
tion was au tom atically tu n ed to and calib rated by a
high stability subsidiary tran sm itte r 350 km aw ay in
o rd e r to m inim ize tran sh o rizo n tal p ro p ag atio n . To
p ro d u ce a w ide b an d m agnetic a n ten n a th e self
reso n an ce of th e 10 kH z a n ten n a was electronically
en h an ced . T he incom ing im pulses w ere so rted into
ap p ro p riate channels on th e basis of th e ir m easu red
frequencies. U sing digital filtering, th e bandw idths
w ere closely d efin ed 8 kH z ± 500 H z, 10 kH z ±
700 H z, 12 kH z ± 500 H z and 28 kH z ( + 1 .5 kH z,
— 3 k H z), a p p ro p riate to the energy d istrib u tio n of
th e frequency sp ectru m o f atm osferics. M o reo v er
each signal was autom atically ch ecked for having a
sine w ave form w ith a definite beginning an d end.
By this non-sine-w ave signals and technics could
be disreg ard ed . Sim ilarly, electro m ag n etic im pulses
from ex p o n en tial discharges (E M P ) w ere n o t re ­
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1000
G. Ruhenstroth-Bauer et al. ■A tm osferics and Sudden D eafness
corded. Im pulses o r groups of im pulses selected
in this way and sum m arized every 8.3 m in (7.2 tim e
units/h) w ere cou n ted . In addition to this the pulserates of the incom ing atm osferics w ere classified in
all of the far frequencies and for each tim e unit in
th ree steps and then reco rd ed on tape: th e first step
co rresponded to a low , th e second to an average im ­
pulse activity, and the th ird step of p ulse-rate was
defined by th e frequency of 2.5 H z o r m ore for the
atm osferics of 4, 6 , 8 , 10, 12, 28 and 50 kH z. F o r the
12 kH z atm osferics the th ird step was defined by
0.25 Hz. T he im pulses of the single frequencies w ere
sum m arized daily in th ree tim e groups: 0 — 8 h,
8 - 1 6 h and 16—24 h.
L ooking at the d istribution of each frequency
separately in all th ree line intervals we defined new
categorized variables for all (7 x 3 = 21) frequencies:
the 25% m ost extrem e values w ere sum m arized to
the category “deviation from norm al freq u en cy ” and
the m iddle 75% of values to the category “norm al
frequency” .
a) 12 kH z (tim e group 0 —8) of the day b efo re the SD
and
b) 8 kH z (tim e group 0 —8) of the day of th e SD.
O n the basis of p < 0.05 we can add th e follow ing
frequency:
c) 12 kH z (tim e group 0 —8) of the day o f th e SD.
T hus, the m ore freq u en t deviation o f th e 12 kH z
atm osferic im pulses the m ore often the occu rren ce of
SD w hereas the opposite is tru e fo r 8 kH z.
F or evaluating sim ultaneously the influence of sev­
eral atm osferics frequencies on SD we fit m ultiple
linear regression m odels. W e sta rted w ith a m odel
containing th e nine variables with th e stro n g est sim ­
ple relations. T hen we step p ed backw ard by om itting
respectively the frequency with the low est influence
(p < 0.05) on the SD. T he startin g m odel w ith the
nine variables explains 8.7% of th e varian ce of SD.
In th e final m odel the tw o variables rem ain ed : the
negative influence of the 8 kH z atm osferics of 0 —8 h
o f the day of the SD and the positive influence of the
12 kH z atm osferics o f 0 —8 h of th e day before this
event. T hese two frequencies are th e b est pred icto rs
o f a SD w ith the m ultiple co rrelatio n o f 0.23 (p <
Results and Discussion
0 .0 1 ).
First we te ste d the hypotheses th a t th e occurrence
of SD is in d e p en d e n t on the onset of particu lar fre­
quencies on the sam e and preceding day. S eparately
for the daily tim e groups, fourfold tables w ith the
ap p ro p riate x2"test w ere calculated for all the 7 m eas­
u red frequencies.
W ith an e rro r probability of less th a n 1% we can
reject the hypothesis of ind ep en d en ce for th e fre ­
quencies of
T he th ree studies of relations b etw een atm osferics
and diseases m en tio n ed in the in tro d u ctio n always
occurred on the day of o bservation. In this new case
th e co rrelation occur in th e tim e in terv al 0 —8 of the
day before and the day of the onset o f h earin g loss.
T h ere seem s to be a kind of m em ory o f th e influence
of atm osferics lasting for 1—2 days. T his m ay be im ­
p o rta n t for the explanation of th e m echanism o f th e
influence of atm osferics on organism s.
[1] K. Poliak, Die Heilkunde und die Antike Löwit, Wies­
baden 1978.
[2] K. Poliak, Die Heilkunde der frühen Hochkulturen
Löwit, Wiesbaden 1978.
[3] H. Ackermann, Das Wetter und die Krankheiten,
Akadem. Buchhandlung Kiel 1854.
[4] H. Brezowsky, Therapie der Gegenwart 104, 480
(1965).
[5] G. Ruhenstroth-Bauer, H. Baumer, J. Kugler, R.
Spatz, W. Sönning, and B. Filipiak, Int. J. Biometeor.
28, 333 (1984).
[6] G. Ruhenstroth-Bauer, H. Baumer, E. M. Burkel, W.
Sönning, and B. Filipiak, Clin. Cardiol. 4, 445 (1984).
[7] G. Ruhenstroth-Bauer, O. Rösing, and H. Baumer,
Naturwissenschaften 73, 625 (1986).
[8] J. Eichmeier und H. Baumer, Arch. Met. Geoph.
Biocl., Ser. A. 31, 249 (1982).
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