Shifting to daylight saving time increases the likelihood of certain diseases

Every year, more than a quarter of the world’s population experiences a time change twice. Meanwhile, research has confirmed that it disrupts not only our circadian rhythm or biological clock, but also negatively affects our health. Switching to daylight saving time has been shown to exacerbate some of the problems, but that’s not all. Scientists have compiled a list of diseases that it can cause and… in the process, they discovered ailments that time changing serves.

  1. Each change to summer time is associated with negative health effects for up to 880 thousand. people around the world
  2. On Monday, after switching to summer time, the statistics of heart attacks are rising by almost 4%.
  3. Changing the time also increases the risk of trauma and mental and behavioral disorders, pregnancy-related complications, immune-related diseases and kidney failure.
  4. Do you want to live longer? Make a simple test and find out how!
  5. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

Daylight saving time 2022

When is the daylight saving time changed? This year it will take place from Saturday, March 26 to Sunday, March 27. We will move the clocks forward one hour – from 2 to 3.

The idea of ​​introducing summer time worked well in the era of candles and gas lamps, because it allowed us to use sunlight a bit longer during working hours, saving employers on energy costs. However, a lot has changed recently. Currently, only a small fraction of the cost of electricity is artificial lighting (e.g. in the US it is about 6% in the residential sector and 8% in the industrial sector). Changing time has a measurable effect not only on electricity consumption, it also causes noticeable changes in human behavior.

Time change – the health effects are already felt on Monday

On the day summer time starts, we record, for example:

  1. a significant increase in road fatalities (up to 30%),
  2. short-term (because we sleep 40 minutes less on average) increase in the number of workplace injuries (5,7%),
  3. increased rates of acute myocardial infarction (by about 3,9%).

Heart attacks occur more often in the morning, because then the blood tends to clot faster. This explains the statistics to some extent. However, according to Dr. Barry Franklin, a cardiologist at Beaumont Health, the increased risk of shifting time mainly affects people already exposed to existing heart disease.

Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in understanding the sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythms, and their impact on our health. Scientists, wanting to fill in the gaps, have dealt with, inter alia, examining the risk of disease in connection with the transition to daylight saving time.

The American population study was based on a cross-sectional analysis of the disease data of over 150 million US patients and 10 million Swedes registered in the US national patient registry.

Four groups of diseases are distinguished:

  1. cardiovascular disease (such as heart attacks)
  2. injuries,
  3. mental and behavioral disorders,
  4. Immune-related diseases (such as non-infectious enteritis and colitis) are increasing by 3%. (in women by more than 60 percent).

The relative increase in the risk of these diseases has been estimated at around 10%. The statistics say that any change to daylight saving time has negative health effects for 880 people. people around the world.

Interestingly, the risk of using psychoactive substances increases by as much as 9%, while when switching to winter time it increases by 12%, but only among men over 20 years of age. The strongest effect was observed among men aged 41-60, both in the USA and Sweden. Many studies have shown that circadian disorders increase the risk of abuse of psychoactive substances, and people who use them have a very disturbed circadian rhythm.

Time change. The probability of going to the hospital is increasing

Scientists found a significant increase in the risk of diseases such as:

  1. complications related to pregnancy, delivery and puerperium, miscarriages in patients after IVF;
  2. injuries and accidents – an increase of 30% This is where children, adolescents and young adults (up to 20 years of age) are in the lead. The most frequently reported accidents resulted in head, wrist and hand injuries. In contrast, older people (41-60 and over 60 years of age) are more likely to damage the lower torso or chest. A German study published last year found an increase in the number of road deaths in the week after daylight saving time, but no such increase was recorded in the fall;
  3. heart and circulatory system diseases. Among the elderly, the risk of certain heart and cerebrovascular diseases increases in spring, but not in autumn. In contrast, in men and women over 60 years of age, the incidence of ischemic heart disease increases;
  4. renal failure (related to the urinary system).

The results suggest an increased risk in diseases including the immune, cardiovascular and digestive systems, musculoskeletal and connective tissue, endocrine, and mental and behavioral disorders (an Australian study found that male suicide rates rise several days after the spring and autumn time changes) and cancer.

Finnish researchers found that the overall rate of ischemic strokes was 8 percent. higher in the first two days after daylight saving time. Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke, accounting for 87 percent. in all cases and is caused by a clot blocking the blood supply to the brain. Additionally, people with cancer are 25 percent lower during this period. more likely to suffer a stroke. The risk is also greater in people over the age of 65. Here, the probability of a stroke increases by 20%. On the other hand, the author of the study, Dr. Jori Ruuskanen of the University of Turku, reports that no increase in the number of hospital deaths due to stroke was observed in the week after the daylight saving time shift.

Time change. Switching to daylight saving time promotes the immune system

Scientists also indicate diseases whose risk decreases after the spring time change. These are various types of infections and diseases related to the immune system. A lower risk may be due to the amplifying effects of short-term stress (such as daylight saving time) on the immune system.

– Spring time change can act as a short-term stress, because the night is shortened by an hour – says prof. Firdaus S. Dhabhar from the University of Miami. – Transient mild stress has been shown to boost the immune system as opposed to long-term stress which has the opposite effect. Probably this phenomenon can be attributed to the reduced risk of urinary tract and skin infections. In other words, short-term stress can enhance the acquisition and / or expression of an immune response in the case of wound healing, vaccination, medication, e.g. anti-cancer or immunopathological – pro-inflammatory, autoimmune – adds the professor.

However, it should be remembered that diseases are not independent of each other. One may facilitate the development of another, and environmental factors may exacerbate a pre-existing chronic disease.

See also:

  1. Changing the time is not indifferent to our health. How does it affect them?
  2. What to eat for a healthy heart
  3. They were used by cosmonauts and Olympic champions. “Plant enhancers” work on the body and mind

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