Global warming and its impact on the human body are discussed at the planetary level. More than other doctors, cardiologists are concerned about this problem. Cardiological patients, like no one else, are meteorologically dependent: any changes in the weather can increase or decrease blood pressure, cause tachycardia or slow heart rate, arrhythmias. In patients with heart disease, temperature fluctuations can provoke heart attacks.
Not so long ago, in 2017, at the 67th Scientific Congress of the US College of Cardiology, the issue of the influence of ambient temperature and its fluctuations on the work of the heart was given special attention. Research conducted by an American cardiologist at the University of Michigan found a relationship between fluctuations in air temperature and the frequency of heart attacks. This suggested that a global change in temperature could affect the number of heart attacks on a planetary scale.
Physiological basis of temperature adaptation
While previous studies have examined the effect of daily average temperature on cardiac activity, the latest study found that the risk of seizures increases with a sudden sharp drop in temperature. Despite the fact that the human body is adapted to changes in environmental conditions, in modern conditions these adaptive mechanisms often break down.
Chronic cardiovascular diseases make it difficult for the body to adapt to changes in environmental conditions, since adaptation is impossible without an adequate vascular response. So, for example, during a sharp cold snap, the vessels of the skin should narrow, while the vessels of the internal organs should expand. Such an adaptive mechanism ensures the warming of the body and maintaining its constant temperature.
In the case of a sharp increase in air temperature, the skin vessels, on the contrary, should expand as much as possible, and the vessels of the internal organs should narrow slightly so that the body has time to give off excess heat to the environment without raising the temperature of the human body.
Violation of the regulation of vascular tone leads to a violation of human adaptation to a changing temperature regime. As a result of this, for example, a sharp cold snap can provoke a spasm not only of the skin vessels, but also of the vessels of the internal organs, including the heart.
Spasm of the coronary vessels that feed the heart causes oxygen starvation of the myocardium, which is subjectively felt as a heart attack (angina pectoris), accompanied by a strong pain effect.
The essence of research
A study by a Michigan cardiologist included more than 30 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary stenting after a myocardial infarction. At the same time, the study sample included patients with a severe form of myocardial infarction with an increase in the ST segment on the electrocardiogram.
The essence of the study was that, according to the results of the meteorological service, the difference in daily temperature fluctuations in the region where the patient had a myocardial infarction was calculated. Thus, a relationship was established between the magnitude of the temperature difference and the frequency of heart attacks: with a difference of five degrees (Celsius), the risk of myocardial infarction increases by 5%. The greater the temperature difference, the higher the risk of a heart attack in patients with diseases of the circulatory system. At the same time, it was found that the risk of developing a heart attack increases even more on days with a high average daily temperature. Thus, the warmer the day with a large temperature difference, the greater the likelihood of a heart attack.
The value of this study is that the results obtained can be used by practicing cardiologists to prevent myocardial infarction. The preventive approach to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases is very effective, so its widespread implementation is the future. Since changes in weather conditions are often predictable, keeping cardiovascular patients up to date with weather forecasts should become a habit.
Taking certain medications in a timely manner, limiting physical and emotional stress, and refusing to perform certain active actions can help patients with chronic pathologies of the cardiovascular system avoid developing a heart attack.