[Rice Catalyst Issue 14]

HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS
WORSENING NEUROLOGICAL
DISEASES
written By
From recent hurricanes such as Hurricane
Ian in Florida to wildfires in California, we
cannot deny the fact that climate change is
Falready exerting disastrous effects on our
communities. Further, climate change has very
real effects on human health and disease,
especially neurological diseases such as
epilepsy, sleep deprivation, and viral diseases
such as malaria.
Not only does climate change impact our
physical communities by destroying
infrastructure, it also worsens complex
neurological diseases that depend on a patient’s
environment. Global warming contributes to
extreme weather conditions by inducing an
average long-term increase in global
temperatures, affecting neurological diseases
that are exacerbated by temperature, humidity,
and heat. With epilepsy, for example, low
temperatures, high humidity, or low atmospheric
pressure may trigger seizures. Patients with
some severe epilepsies, such as Dravet
syndrome, have reported increased seizures
during the unusually hot summers in recent
years. In a survey conducted by Epilepsy Climate
Change¹, among 1000 patients with epilepsy,
62% of patients saw an increase in seizure
frequency or severity during hot summers.
Dravet syndrome is also known to play a role in
Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP),
which is fever-sensitive, and increases in
temperature can lead to higher SUDEP rates and
a higher mortality rate. Therefore, climate
change leads to increased seizure frequency,
seizure severity, and higher mortality rates.
1 0 | C A T A L Y S T 2022-2023
In addition to epilepsy, climate change also
impacts a factor that is relevant for everyone:
sleep. Weather variations exacerbate the
effects of fatigue and sleep deprivation and
alterations in climate due to the impacts of
climate change have already been shown to
cause large changes in an individual’s sleep
patterns. A large-scale US survey indicated that
a deviation of one degree celsius in night-time
temperatures was associated with an increase
of three nights of self-reported insufficient
sleep per 100 people per month². Poor sleep is
bad for one’s health, and moreover, the
elevation of night-time temperatures even
more negatively affects poor sleepers as they
tend to feel fatigued. The stress caused by
climate change-induced wildfires, floods, and
hurricanes may result in the displacement of
communities, increased viral infections, and
food insecurity, which in turn triggers stress
and decreases sleep quality. This is how climate
change both combines and exacerbates stress,
sleep deprivation, and fatigue, which are
incredibly relevant for college students
experiencing many of these symptoms as well
for patients with epilepsy as these factors
increase seizure frequency.
"... we can fuel our
energy toward service
and activism in
whatever way we
choose - big or small -
every effort matters."
Further, in addition to neurological diseases,
climate change also increases the spread and
prevalence of infectious diseases such as
malaria and the West Nile virus. Malaria is a
deadly, tropical, mosquito-borne disease that
kills almost one million people and affects
almost one billion people around the world.
Increases in rainfall, humidity, and
temperature may cause a proliferation of the
malaria-carrying mosquitoes at higher
altitudes and drier climates, resulting in an
increase in malaria transmission in areas in
which it was not reported earlier³. Changes in
climate also affect West Nile viral transmission
rates, which mosquitoes spread as the vectors
for this virus.
Anika Sonig
Since weather conditions have direct influences
on the ability to acquire and transmit the viral
vector, and this affects the viral replication rate
within the mosquito, with higher temperatures
accelerating replication rate and viral
transmission efficacy⁴ . The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change lists vector-borne
diseases among the consequences most likely
to change due to global warming, so we should
focus on creating solutions that would help
reduce the spread of viral diseases. It’s
extremely important to minimize the spread of
these illnesses by mitigating the effects of
climate change, as they are both deadly.
If we do not improve upon the current
progression of climate change and create
policies to limit its effects, then the rates of
seizures in epilepsy, rates of stress and sleep
deprivation, and rates of viral-borne infections
will only continue to skyrocket. Climate change
effects will also be distributed differently across
nations worldwide and exacerbate health
disparities that already exist within and
between communities. International
collaboration and public health efforts will be
imperative for studying and mitigating the
impacts of climate change and creating creative
solutions. Like so many people, I wonder what
to do at this time. This summer, I could not only
visibly see, but also hear, the glaciers in Iceland
melting and this further instilled the urgency of
the situation in me. Whether it be through
adopting renewable energy such as electric
vehicles or installing solar panels, not
supporting fast fashion methods, composting
at the serveries, or supporting the climate
movement through activism - there are many
ways in which we can contribute and make a
difference. It’s sometimes hard to escape the
sense of pain and heartbreak for the state of
our planet, but while acknowledging this grief,
we can fuel our energy toward service and
activism in whatever way we choose - big or
small - every effort matters.
Works Cited
[1] “Climate Change.” Epilepsy Society, 12 July 2022,
https://epilepsysociety.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/climate-change.
[2] Obradovich, Nick, et al. “Nighttime Temperature and Human Sleep Loss in a
Changing Climate.” Science Advances, 2017, vol. 3, no. 5.
[3] “Climate Change and Malaria - a Complex Relationship.” United Nations,
United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/climate-change-andmalaria-complex-relationship.
[4] Paz, Shlomit. “Climate Change Impacts on West Nile Virus Transmission in a
Global Context.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences, vol. 370, no. 1665, 2015.
Edited By
Designed By
Michelle Sekili &
Supraja Kadagandla
Abby McKellop