To ask why moving to a sunny climate was the tonic to illness in days gone by?

[ArmsClary]

Have just Googled but to no avail.

I've re-read a few children's classics with DD during lockdown and on two occasions, in two separate books, an unwell parent was advised to up-sticks and move abroad as part of their recovery.

I'm sure I've come across it before on other occasions.

Was this is a common thing back then? I think both books are set in the early 1900s.

Would be interested to know the medical reasoning behind this if anyone knows the background

I think it still is. I have family members who moved to the warmer coast upon retirement. Warmer and better air quality.

My asthma almost disappears on holiday

The family of Julia Gillard, the former Australian PM, emigrated there from South Wales in the 1960’s because she’d been seriously ill with pneumonia and doctors had advised her parents a warmer climate would help her recover.

Altitude helps breathing issues. Which is why sanatoria for TB are always in the swiss mountains. Similar to high altitude training for athletes- you produce more red blood cells, and mountain air is dehydrating to the lungs.

I had a friend with CF in the mid-80’s. She would spend a few months in the swiss mountains every so often.

I'm originally from East Lancashire and since I've moved abroad my arthritis has finished. It was almost instantaneous

My GP told my parents to try a "change of air" when I had a lot of respiratory illnesses as a child in the early 80s, she packed me off to my aunt in the other side of the country. Don't know whether it helped or not but I enjoyed a week or 2 away from home during school time

But TB hospitals were a thing mil was telling me this weekend about one of her relatives being sent to the TB hospital regularly to rest in the open air.

The air was often very polluted. Homes were often cramped and damp

Tuberculosis thrives in damp conditions.

Warmth and vitamin D - even if they didn’t know about the vitamin they knew that sun was beneficial.
Especially during a typical U.K. winter - don’t forget that central heating for most people is a relatively recent thing, and cold houses could also be damp, which isn’t good for anybody.

Away from polluted city or factory air; dryer climate; away from pressures of home environment; getting outside daily (lots of ill people don't in the uk) in a comfortable climate to do that - more movement and exercise; greater chance to absorb vitamin D.

@DinkyDiggies

I imagine that the clean air act of 1956 would have had a lot to do with it. Air quality in cities up until then was notoriously bad, with the great smog of 1952 killing 4000 people. Couple that with no central heating - most people would have had a range or open fire, poor sanitation and TB being rife, then it’s no surprise those who could afford to move, did so. Those who couldn’t had an average life expectancy of about 40 (uk citizen born in 1900)

I think this is a bit misleading. Sadly, a great many babies and very young children died shortly after birth or in the first few years of life from infectious diseases which are now largely prevented by vaccines and other conditions which have effective treatments. If you made it to adult life, though, your chances of living into your 60s or older were pretty good.