A new review of research has investigated into the effects climate change has on neurologic disease, including stroke.
Review author, Andrew Dhawan, says: “Although the international community seeks to reduce global temperature rise to under 2.7 ºF before 2100, irreversible environmental changes have already occurred, and as the planet warms these changes will continue to occur.
“As we witness the effects of a warming planet on human health, it is imperative that neurologists anticipate how neurologic disease may change.”
For this review, the research team examined studies published on climate change, pollutants, temperature extremes and neurologic disease between 1990 and 2022
364 relevant studies were identified in three categories, which included 289 studies on the impact of pollution, 38 studies on extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations and 37 studies on emerging neuroinfectious diseases.
Only studies on adults were used, children were omitted.
The studies identified highlighted the relationships between temperature variability and worsening neurologic symptoms, warming climates and tick- and mosquito-borne infections, this also included airborne pollutants and cerebrovascular disease rate and severity.
This review displays that extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations are associated with stroke incidence and severity, migraine headaches, hospitalisation in dementia patients and worsening of MS.
It also displays exposure to airborne pollutants, especially nitrates and fine particulate matter, also referred to as PM 2.5, pollutant particles of less than 2.5 microns in diameter, was linked to stroke incidence and severity, headaches, dementia risk, Parkinson’s disease and worsening of MS.
“Climate change poses many challenges for humanity, some of which are not well-studied.
“For example, our review did not find any articles related to effects on neurologic health from food and water insecurity, yet these are clearly linked to neurologic health and climate change. More studies are needed on ways to reduce neuroinfectious disease transmission, how air pollution affects the nervous system, and how to improve delivery of neurologic care in the face of climate-related disruptions.”
A limitation is that the studies were conducted in resource-rich regions of the world, which suggests that the results may not apply in regions with fewer resources where such changes may be even likely to occur.
