https://www.tctmd.com/news/global-stroke-burden-continues-rise-climate-change-gaining-influence
The continuing rise in global stroke burden indicates that approaches to managing the problem need to change, including by moving away from common risk-based efforts that have the medical community focusing on individuals deemed to be at highest risk, he argued. …
Moreover, the updated data indicate that extreme high ambient temperatures are having a profound impact on stroke burden, adding to prior studies showing the importance also of extreme cold temperatures.
“These findings are in line with research showing that rises in ambient temperature (including heat waves) and climate change are associated with increased stroke morbidity and mortality,” the authors write. “Because ambient air pollution is reciprocally associated with the ambient temperature and climate change, all of which synergistically influence cardiovascular disease (including stroke) occurrence and overall health, the importance of urgent climate actions and measures to reduce ambient air pollution cannot be overestimated.”
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Reaction from climate statistician Dr. Willaim Briggs:
https://wmbriggs.substack.com/p/scientists-induce-apolexy-in-me-in
Scientists Induce Apoplexy (In Me) In Attempting To Tie Stroke To “Climate Change”
By William M Briggs
Excerpt: Our headline of the day: “Global Stroke Burden Continues to Rise, With Climate Change Gaining Influence”.
…the link between stroke and climate change-related factors—like ambient temperature and air pollution—appears to be getting stronger…
Does it.
The continuing rise in global stroke burden indicates that approaches to managing the problem need to change, including by moving away from common risk-based efforts that have the medical community focusing on individuals deemed to be at highest risk, [Valery Feigin] argued…
Prior GBD analyses have shown that the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, increased steadily between 1990 and 2019, with an overall slowing of the decline in CVD-related mortality—and increases in some parts of the world—over time. Moreover, a previous stroke-related analysis with data through 2019 demonstrated that stroke remained the second leading cause of death in the world behind ischemic heart disease.
And just what happened in 2020?
In their current paper, the investigators provide an update on the situation using data gathered through 2021 from 204 countries and territories….
Not surprisingly, Feigin said, stroke burden continued to rise on a global scale, even as rates of new and prevalent cases, deaths, and DALYs [disability-adjusted life-years] stayed on the decline in most areas. In 2021, there were an estimated 11.9 million new stroke events (up 70.2% from 1990), 93.8 million stroke survivors (up 86.1%), 7.3 million related deaths (up 44.1%), and 160.5 million related DALYs (up 32.2%) worldwide.
Well then. (We can quarrel with DALYs another day: I don’t like swapping real measures for “adjusted” ones.)
The paper says stroke was killer #3 in 2021 after heart disease and—drumroll—covid.
Then came the regressions. Models cramming everything, or near enough to everything, in to find correlations, which they insinuate are causes.
The risks included in the analysis were ambient particulate matter pollution; household air pollution from solid fuels; low ambient temperature (daily temperatures below the TMREL); high ambient temperature (daily temperatures above the TMREL); lead exposure; diet high in sodium; diet high in red meat; diet high in processed meat; diet low in fruits; diet low in vegetables; diet low in wholegrains; alcohol use (any alcohol dosage consumption); diet high in sugar-sweetened beverages; diet low in fibre; diet low in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids; low physical activity (only for ischaemic stroke burden); smoking; second-hand smoke; high BMI; high fasting plasma glucose; high systolic blood pressure; high LDL cholesterol (only for ischaemic stroke burden); and kidney dysfunction, as measured by low glomerular filtration rate (not assessed for subarachnoid haemorrhage burden).
Most of this stuff will be measured very poorly, or by proxy, which makes it next to useless. But they had large numbers, which practically guarantee wee Ps (or mathematically equivalent narrow confidence intervals around non-existent model parameters).
They couldn’t help trying riding the “climate change” gravy train. But it threw them onto the tracks—and they didn’t even know it. They tracked four kinds of strokes, and only in one (subarachnoid haemorrhage) do they boast of “significant” effects of temperature. And even these were at the bottom of the list of correlates, with low ambient temperature having slightly more risk than high ambient temperature. The dangers of global cooling!
What do we conclude? We only dare to live in a narrow range of temperatures? Or else risk only one kind of stroke?
The “effects” of the other measures never had the same order, either, except for high blood pressure and smoking (breaking news).
The whole thing is hilariously asinine.
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