Effects of Global Warming on Patients with Dementia, Motor Neuron or Parkinson’s Diseases: A Comparison among Cortical and Subcortical Disorders

Paolo Bongioanni, Renata Del Carratore (), Cristina Dolciotti, Andrea Diana and Roberto Buizza
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Paolo Bongioanni: Medical Specialties Department, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, 56100 Pisa, Italy
Renata Del Carratore: Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, 56100 Pisa, Italy
Cristina Dolciotti: Medical Specialties Department, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, 56100 Pisa, Italy
Andrea Diana: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, 09100 Cagliari, Italy
Roberto Buizza: Life Science Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56100 Pisa, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-11

Abstract: Exposure to global warming can be dangerous for health and can lead to an increase in the prevalence of neurological diseases worldwide. Such an effect is more evident in populations that are less prepared to cope with enhanced environmental temperatures. In this work, we extend our previous research on the link between climate change and Parkinson’s disease (PD) to also include Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias (AD/D) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Motor Neuron Diseases (ALS/MND). One hundred and eighty-four world countries were clustered into four groups according to their climate indices (warming and annual average temperature). Variations between 1990 and 2016 in the diseases’ indices (prevalence, deaths, and disability-adjusted life years) and climate indices for the four clusters were analyzed. Unlike our previous work on PD, we did not find any significant correlation between warming and epidemiological indices for AD/D and ALS/MND patients. A significantly lower increment in prevalence in countries with higher temperatures was found for ALS/MND patients. It can be argued that the discordant findings between AD/D or ALS/MND and PD might be related to the different features of the neuronal types involved and the pathophysiology of thermoregulation. The neurons of AD/D and ALS/MND patients are less vulnerable to heat-related degeneration effects than PD patients. PD patients’ substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), which are constitutively frailer due to their morphology and function, fall down under an overwhelming oxidative stress caused by climate warming.

Keywords: global warming; dementia; motor neuron disease; Parkinson’s disease; neurodegeneration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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