Cold weather DOESN'T increase the risk of a heart attack - you're more likely to die from one during winter wherever you are

Retiring to a warm climate does not reduce your risk of a heart attack. New research has found you're more likely to die of a heart attack in winter, regardless of the climate

It has long been thought that warmer climes are good for our health. But a new study suggests that retiring abroad may not make as much difference as you thought. US researchers have found you're more likely to die of a heart attack in winter regardless of the climate. They looked at the death rates across warmer and cooler parts of America and found very little difference.

The researchers, from the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, analysed four years of death certificate data from seven states with different climates: California, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Washington, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Arizona, for example, is considered to have a warmer winter climate than somewhere chillier such as Massachusetts.

For the years studied, in all areas, the total deaths as well as circulatory deaths (i.e. heart and stroke-related deaths) rose an average of 26-36 per cent during the winter compared to the summer.

What surprised the researchers was that seasonal patterns of total and cardiac deaths were very similar in the seven different climate patterns.

No matter where the figures were from, the pattern was the same: many more deaths in the winter than in the summer. ‘This was surprising because climate was thought to be the primary determinant of seasonal variation in death rates,’ said Bryan Schwartz, lead author of the study. 'We thought colder climates with a colder winter might have a higher increase [in heart attacks] in the wintertime or a prolonged increase in the wintertime, but that's not what we found.'

 

It was thought colder weather would increase the risk of a heart attack, but researchers found no evidence of this

Because low temperatures have often been linked with increased death rates, the researchers thought the winter peak would be more prominent in cold climates like Massachusetts, added Dr Schwartz, now a cardiology fellow at the University of New Mexico. 'But the death rates were similar. That means that temperature is a small factor - or not a factor at all.' The research was not designed to show why heart-related death rates rose across the board in the winter. But Dr Schwartz suggested that people may 'acclimate to their local climate,' making the change between summer and winter temperatures more important than how low the temperature dips in winter. Flu season - which peaks in the winter - is another factor, he added. Higher rates of respiratory infection have also been shown to raise the risk of death from a heart-related issue, which reinforces the importance of flu vaccines.

 Source: Daily Mail UK 

Please share