Climate Change May Worsen Neurologic Disease Symptoms 

According to a review of published studies on climate change, people with neurologic diseases such as migraine, dementia, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Parkinson disease (PD) may experience worsening symptoms and stroke may be more prevalent due to climate change.   

The review showed that extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations were associated with stroke incidence and severity, migraine headaches, hospitalization in dementia patients, and worsening of MS.
 
The study also showed that for emerging neuroinfectious diseases such as West Nile virus, meningococcal meningitis, and tick-borne encephalitis, climate change expanded favorable conditions for the diseases beyond traditional geographic areas, posing the risk of disease in new populations.
 
“Climate change poses many challenges for humanity, some of which are not well-studied,” said Andrew Dhawan, MD, DPhil, Cleveland Clinic. “For example, our review did not find any articles related to effects on neurologic health from food and water insecurity, yet these are clearly linked to neurologic health and climate change. More studies are needed on ways to reduce neuroinfectious disease transmission, how air pollution affects the nervous system, and how to improve delivery of neurologic care in the face of climate-related disruptions.”

For the review, researchers examined studies published on climate change, pollutants, temperature extremes, and neurologic disease between 1990 and 2022.