Recent studies suggest that the prevalence of both communicable and non-communicable diseases is aggravating due to climate change and rising temperatures. Rising temperatures have been acting like a slow poison on human beings, deteriorating the quality of life and affecting normal functions such as eating, moving, sleeping, concentrating, or reproducing. Moreover, they are leaving an adverse effect on people’s home depot health check.
Let us see the factors contributing to the increase in disease burden across the globe:
- Spike in the level of atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs), mainly CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide, and to climate change
- The earth’s average surface temperature will rise by at least 2°C by 2050 due to the combined effect of the GHGs.
- Due to the temperature spike, floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves would become more frequent and severe.
- Over and inequitable consumption of natural resources and manmade pollution have contributed to increased non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their unfair social distribution.
Impact on climate change on cardiovascular health
Research suggests that Climate change may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) through three main exposure pathways:
- directly via air pollution
- extreme temperatures
- and indirectly via changes to dietary options
Climate change may also influence the degree, type and distribution of exposure towards air pollutants. This could range from weather-triggered concentrations, anthropogenic emissions, natural sources of air pollutants, and the spread of different types of airborne allergens. Several environmental air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, ozone, lead, and particulate matter, are associated with increased hospitalization and mortality due to chronic cardiovascular conditions.
Most regions on earth are expected to become warmer in the future. The densely populated areas, tropical/ subtropical regions, and inland areas within large continents are expected to become warmer by 1–3°C by 2050 and 3–5°C by 2080. India is one of the high-risk zones for obesity, CVD, and diabetes. This would lead to heat-related mortality arising from the overloading of cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The reduction in the winter season may lessen respiratory ailments, but difficulty in physiological adaptation towards temperature extremities is likely to blunt away much of this benefit. The sudden increase in CVD mortalities can be seen in the accelerated warming of the Arctic region and the attendant loss of sea ice and permafrost. The traditional living, hunting, and eating patterns in the Inuit communities of northern Canada have been disturbed, causing reduced physical mobility options and increased reliance on imported energy-dense processed foods, thus potentially amplifying obesity, CVD, and diabetes.
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Author Bio: Hi, I’m Pooja and I’m a passionate Blogger, Freelancer, Writer, and Digital Marketer. and I love tech stuff and games. Gembells, Hotmaillog.