Study finds correlation between climate change and neurological issues
Researchers analysed the impact of extreme weather on 19 nervous system conditions, including stroke, Alzheimer’s, meningitis, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. They also looked at psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. Photograph:( Others )
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Researchers from University College London, in a study published in Lancet Neurology, have found a concerning a link between environmental changes and neurological health
Researchers from University College London, in a study published in Lancet Neurology, have found a concerning a link between environmental changes and neurological health
Climate Change can threaten our homes but as per a new research, extreme weather can also harm our brain health, making disorders like anxiety and depression worse.
Researchers from University College London, as per a study published in Lancet Neurology, have found a concerning link between environmental changes and neurological health.
What is the correlation?
Researchers analysed the impact of extreme weather on 19 nervous system conditions, including stroke, Alzheimer’s, meningitis, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. They also looked at psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.
They discovered that there was a "clear evidence for an impact of the climate on some brain conditions, especially stroke and infections of the nervous system".
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"The climatic variation that was shown to have an effect on brain diseases included extremes of temperature, both low and high, and greater temperature variation throughout the course of day, especially when these measures were seasonally unusual," said Professor Sanjay Sisodiya, director of genomics at University College London's epilepsy society.
He said that nighttime temperatures mean hotter nights, which can disrupt sleep. This is "particularly important" as hotter temperature and heatwaves mean billions of people globally are sleeping through higher than normal temperatures.
They also observed an increase in hospital admissions, disability, and stroke due to higher temperatures or heatwaves.
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Hottest 12 months
The research comes as Asia faces dangerous heatwaves attributed to climate crisis.
Recently, the European Union's climate change monitoring service Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) in its monthly report said that April 2024 was once again the hottest April on record. Every month for the past 11 months, the world has set a new temperature record.
As per C3S, including April, Earth's average temperature was the highest on record for a 12-month period, with temperatures around 1.61 degrees Celsius above the average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
