Heart-related problems crop up more during winter

 Heart-related deaths increase in winter regardless of climate, according to a new study. This was surprising because climate was thought to be the primary determinant of seasonal variation in death rates,” said Bryan Schwartz, MD, lead author of the study.

 Researchers at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles analysed 2005-08 death certificate data from seven US locations with different climates: Los Angeles County, Calif.; Texas; Arizona; Georgia; Washington; Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

In all areas, total and “circulatory” deaths rose an average 26 per cent to 36 per cent from the summer low to the winter peak over four years. Circulatory deaths include fatal heart attack, heart failure, cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Seasonal patterns of total and cardiac deaths were very similar in the seven different climate patterns. Death rates at all sites clustered closely together and no one site was statistically different from any other site.

Researchers didn’t design the analysis to determine specific causes that might drive heart-related deaths up in winter. Schwartz hypothesised that colder weather might increase vessel constriction and raise blood pressure.

“In addition, people generally don’t live as healthy in winter as they do in summer. They don’t eat as well and don’t exercise as much,” said Schwartz, now a cardiology fellow at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

However, “people should be extra aware that maintaining healthy behaviours is important in winter,” he said.

Schwartz and Robert Kloner, MD, PhD, senior author of the study, used statistical techniques to account for the normal year-to-year temperature differences over the four years. Then, they averaged the resulting four-year data into U-shaped curves for each site and compared them. The graphs showed significant similarities.