Heart deaths rise in winter

It doesn’t matter if you live in California or in Massachusetts, you’re more likely to die of a heart-related problem such as heart attack, heart failure or stroke when the weather is (relatively) cold.

Researchers looked at death records from seven U.S. locations - California, Massachusetts, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, western Washington state and Pennsylvania - and found a consistent pattern “across the board,” said Dr. Robert Kloner, a cardiologist at the Heart Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and a collaborator in a study presented Nov. 7 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012.

In all of the sites the team surveyed, it found a 26 percent to 36 percent increase in circulatory deaths in winter

compared with summer and

early fall.

“This was surprising because climate was thought to be the primary determinant of seasonal variation in death rates,” said Dr. Bryan Schwartz, the lead author of the study. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Kloner said the results suggested that people acclimatize to the conditions where they live, and that factors beyond temperature - including higher rates of flu infection, less-healthful lifestyles in winter months, and higher rates of depression when the weather takes a turn for the worse - could be important in determining when deaths occur during a typical year. The holiday season also seems to affect health in Los Angeles, Kloner said. “Maybe it’s obnoxious relatives, or financial stress,” he said.

ActiveStyle, Pages 28 on 11/19/2012

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