Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Dec 30;14(4):336-342.
doi: 10.34172/hpp.43089. eCollection 2024.

Climate change's impact on the nervous system: A review study

Mohammad-Reza Sadeghi  1 , Parna Ghannadi  2 , Alireza Lotfi  3 , Hamidreza Ashayeri  2
Affiliations
Review

Climate change's impact on the nervous system: A review study

Mohammad-Reza Sadeghi et al. Health Promot Perspect. .

Abstract

Background: Global warming is caused by increased carbon dioxide and other industrial gases, which shift the climate of human habitat and environment, impacting human health globally. In this review, we tried to overview the current knowledge of climate change's impact on neurological disease.

Methods: A comprehensive search on PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), and Scopus was conducted to find the relevant original studies. Language, sex, age, date, or country of study were not restricted. Included studies report increased Alzheimer's disease mortality and hospital admission.

Results: This increase was seen from the first day with high temperature to 3-4 days later. Parkinson's disease (PD) subjects were more vulnerable to high temperatures compared to dementia patients (RR for dementia: 1.29 and for PD: 1.41). Global warming was linked to the increase in the incidence of Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) (from 0.1% to 5.4%), Japanese encephalitis (OR: 2 when floods occur), and ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) (RR: 1.62 for each 1 ◦C increase per month).

Conclusion: Health-related consequences of climate change are inevitable. The burden of medical problems related to the elderly population (especially the elderly with dementia), infectious diseases, and CFP on the healthcare system will naturally increase. Studying global warming trends could empower us with more precise predictions of the future and better planning to face climate change-related challenges.

Keywords: Air pollution; Alzheimer disease; Climate change; Dementia; Global warming; Headache; Neurodegenerative diseases; Parkinson disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Callendar GS. The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature. Q J R Meteorol Soc. 1938;64(275):223–40. doi: 10.1002/qj.49706427503. - DOI
    1. Anderson TR, Hawkins E, Jones PD. CO2, the greenhouse effect and global warming: from the pioneering work of Arrhenius and Callendar to today’s Earth System Models. Endeavour. 2016;40(3):178–87. doi: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhao W. Extreme weather and climate events in China under changing climate. Natl Sci Rev. 2020;7(5):938–43. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa069. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Klein T, Anderegg WR. A vast increase in heat exposure in the 21st century is driven by global warming and urban population growth. Sustain Cities Soc. 2021;73:103098. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2021.103098. - DOI
    1. Carnes BA, Staats D, Willcox BJ. Impact of climate change on elder health. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2014;69(9):1087–91. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glt159. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources