Scientists are now reporting that the man-made global warming could increase the number of heart attacks:
“Global warming is expected to cause extreme weather events, which may, in turn, result in large day-to-day fluctuations in temperature,” said Hedvig Andersson, MD, a cardiology researcher at the University of Michigan and the study’s lead author. “Our study suggests that such fluctuations in outdoor temperature could potentially lead to an increased number of heart attacks and affect global cardiac health in the future.”
“While the body has effective systems for responding to changes in temperature, it might be that more rapid and extreme fluctuations create more stress on those systems, which could contribute to health problems,” Andersson said, noting that the underlying mechanism for this association remains unknown.
In essence, the global warming, you see, will result in extreme weather — this includes heat and cold waves. These sorts of events, they claim, may be enough to increase heart attack risks.
“Our study suggests that such fluctuations in outdoor temperature could potentially lead to an increased number of heart attacks and affect global cardiac health in the future,” said Andersson, the study’s lead author.
Except, real data shows something else altogether:
“The frequency of cold waves have decreased during the past fifty years, not increased. That alone shows that such claims are baseless,” University of Washington climatologist Cliff Mass said in January when some were linking a U.S. cold snap to global warming.
“Cold outbreaks like this are getting warmer (less frequent) due to global warming, but cold waves still occur somewhere in North America almost every winter,” Climate Central found.
Regardless, the University of Michigan researchers are sticking to their guns on this, insisting that their study shows a link between the temperature swings and risk of heart attacks.
The data they’ve gathered comes from 30,000 patients who were treated in dozens of hospitals in the state over the last 6 years. Then they compared this to the weather records and voila! The height of global warming paranoia!