Merry Wahyuningsih - detikHealth

Rome, If global warming continues more people will die from heart problems. Due to extreme climate change, it will put more strain on the heart and increase the risk of cardiac death.

A study in the British Medical Journal found that a 1 degree celsius drop in temperature on a single day in the UK was linked to 200 additional heart attacks.

In addition, heat waves can also be the cause of increased cardiac deaths, as shown by events in Paris during the summer. More than 11,000 people died in the French heat in the first half of August in 2003, when temperatures rose to 40 degrees celsius.

Most people died from sudden cardiac death related to heart conditions other than regular heart attacks.

That same summer, the UK also broke records with rising temperatures causing the deaths of more than 2,000 people. And experts predict that by the 2080s, similar events will occur every year.

According to experts, the risks posed by extreme hot and cold temperature changes are most vulnerable to the elderly. Most of the victims are people in their 70s and 80s.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine analyzed data on 84,000 patients hospitalized with heart attacks between 2003 and 2006.

Researchers found that a 1-degree celsius drop in temperature from the average daily temperature was associated with a cumulative 2 percent in heart attack risk over 28 days, even in summer.

Cold temperatures can make blood more prone to clotting and this can obviously pose a heart risk. This can actually be partially counteracted with aspirin, which is a blood-thinning medication.

""Measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on changes in the lifestyle of the population and at the individual level may have major benefits for health and climate protection,"" said Dr. Paola Michelozzi and Manuela De Sario, from the Lazio Region Department of Epidemiology in Rome, as reported by BBC, Thursday (12/8/2010).

For example, according to Paola, lowering saturated fat intake by reducing consumption of animal products is a healthy food choice recommended in coronary heart disease prevention guidelines and can also be a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

(mer/ir)