Science & Nature

Spring: a season of strokes

By team ⋅ March 29, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Herald, 7 March

The risk of getting a stroke increases in spring, new research has found. In a study of Japanese adults who suffered strokes between 1988 and 2001, the risk of having a stroke in spring was one-quarter higher than it was in the summer in men, women, young and old alike. The study revealed that strokes were most likely in March, April and May, despite other known risk factors such as smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure.

‘The mechanisms underlying seasonal variation of strokes are not fully understood’, wrote Dr Tanvir Chowdhury Turin of Shiga University of Medical Science, Japan. However, researchers noted that blood pressure undergoes a similar seasonal variation and blood is more prone to clotting during colder months. This is because blood cholesterol levels and certain blood proteins also tend to be higher at that time of year.