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Geomagnetic Field Effects on Living Systems

reach Earth and create magnetic disturbances. Of course, other sources of radiation such as X-rays,

GCRs, and UV-rays from the sun during CMEs are also likely aspects of the anticipatory reaction.

Te other environmental variable that was strongly associated with increased HF, LF, and VLF power

and total power of the HRV measures was SR power. Tis was accompanied by the positive correlation

to IBIs (lower HR), which was also signifcant during most of the analysis period. In addition, support­

ing a benefcial efect of enhanced SR power is a study that found reduced systolic, diastolic, and mean

arterial BPs during the period of higher SR power (Mitsutake et al., 2005). Persinger and colleagues have

conducted a number of studies showing that not only are the base rhythms of the brain similar, but real-

time coherence between SRs and EEGs can occur in participants globally, and that the intensity of the

SR is linearly related to the amount of coherence (Saroka and Persinger, 2014; Saroka et al., 2016). Tey

also have proposed that information transfer can occur between human brains and the SRs (Persinger

and Saroka, 2015).

Many species exhibit, irrespective of the size and complexity of their brain, essentially similar low-

frequency electrical activity (Price et al., 2021), and it is possible that the dominant frequencies of brain

waves may be an evolutionary result of the presence and infuence of the SR (Direnfeld, 1983). Moreover, it

is conceivable that magnetoreception could be infuenced by SR and ELF background felds. As mentioned

above, these felds seem to have physiological efects on humans, so any animal that can sense the GMF

has more sensitive and advanced magnetoreceptors than humans is more likely to be afected by the felds.

An increase in solar wind intensity was correlated with increases in HR, which might be regarded as

a biological stress response (Alabdulgader et al., 2018). Tese fndings that are both extremely high and

extremely low values of geomagnetic activity are associated with the timing of increased death rates

(Stoupel et al., 2013), and also suggest that the Earth’s energetic environment afects people’s energy

levels and that low activity or disturbances can act as triggers in sensitive and unhealthy populations,

and serve to motivate and facilitate human activity (Alabdulgader et al., 2018).

6.4.4 The Effects of the Solar Cycles and the Geomagnetic Field

on Infectious Diseases and Human Health

Accumulated data support the idea about cycles of solar activity as the pacemaker of numerousiological

phenomena including epidemics of some infectious diseases and dynamic changes in immunological

parameters of living systems (Zaporozhan and Ponomarenko, 2010). Chizhevsky (1976) performed a

comparative retrospective analysis of fu epidemics with respect to solar activity cycles and came to

the following conclusions: (1) outbreaks of major infuenza pandemics show a clear cycle of 11.3 years

on average, equal to the period of fuctuations in solar activity; (2) as a rule, a serious infuenza pan­

demic does not occur in years of minimal solar activity; (3) most major infuenza pandemics occurred at

time intervals that begin 2–3 years before the maximum of solar activity and end 2–3 years later. Hope-

Simpson (1978) noted coincidences between the infuenza pandemic and the maximum of solar activity,

which occur with an ~11-year period. Tese observations were continued, developed, and statistically

tested later on (Hoyle and Wlckramasinghe, 1990; Ertel, 1994; Yeung, 2006; Vaquero and Gallego, 2007).

Tapping et al. (2001) showed that infuenza pandemics ofen occur during the period of maximum

solar activity. Te 1946, 1957, 1968, and 1977 pandemics (shown as spikes) on a plot of the 10.7 cm Solar

Flux in solar fux units (sfu) are shown by Zaporozhan and Ponomarenko (2010). Te fux values prior

to 1947 were estimated from sunspot data. However, there were some exceptions that occurred near the

minimum activity, such as the 1977 pandemic. A summarized correlation diagram for all study periods

(~300 years) indicated that there is a signifcant correlation between solar activity and the activity of the

infuenza pandemic process (Tapping et al., 2001). Zaporozhan and Ponomarenko (2010) showed the

distribution of infuenza pandemics (according to diferent authors) as a function of phase ofset from

solar activity maximum (modifed from Tapping et al., 2001). Several other authors have also noticed a

correlation between the solar cycle and major infuenza and other epidemics on Earth (Hope-Simpson,

1978; Ertel, 1994; Tapping et al., 2001; Yeung, 2006; Vaquero and Gallego, 2007). However, the presence