Researchers have warned that people with brain disorders may experience poor health effects from climate change due to its effects on weather patterns and unfavourable weather events.
Several illnesses, including stroke, migraines, meningitis, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s, can get worse with rising temperatures and humidity levels.
The team, led by Professor Sanjay Sisodiya of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, stated that they anticipate a significant impact of climate change on neurological disorders after reviewing 332 studies that were published worldwide between 1968 and 2023.
Professor Sisodiya, who founded Epilepsy environment Change and serves as the director of genomics at the Epilepsy Society, stated that there is proof linking some brain disorders, such as infections of the neurological system and stroke, to changes in the environment.
The Global Burden of Disease 2016 study was used to choose the 19 nervous system disorders that the researchers looked at, including multiple sclerosis, stroke, migraines, Alzheimer’s, meningitis, and epilepsy.
Additionally, they examined how climate change affects several common yet important mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, sadness, and anxiety. Based on the results, greater ambient temperatures or heatwaves were associated with an increase in hospital admissions, disability, or death from stroke.
Based on the results, greater ambient temperatures or heatwaves were associated with an increase in hospital admissions, disability, or death from stroke.
The researchers further propose that because dementia might impair an individual’s capacity to adjust behaviour in response to environmental changes, persons with dementia may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of temperature extremes and meteorological occurrences like flooding or wildfires.
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