Research says thunderstorms can cause asthma attacks requiring hospitalization

A study letter issued Monday at JAMA Internal Medicine showed a significant increase in visits to emergency rooms for the elderly suffering from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for the days before the thunderstorm.

The study used Medicare data for people aged 65 and older, but the risks are equally real for young people with serious respiratory illness, the study author said Associate Professor of Health Policy at Harvard Medical School. Said Dr. Anupham Jena.

“It certainly can affect asthmatic children and young adults,” Jena said. “By just getting the specific data provided by Medicare, we can compare hospitalization rates to weather patterns in small areas.”

The study found that emergency visits peaked the day before the storm, with an average of 1.8 additional visits per million beneficiaries.

“The visit was not during a thunderstorm that was raining,” Jena said. “And after the storm ended, we saw a drop in visitation rates to the ER.”

Thunderstorm asthma

The phenomenon of “thunderstorm asthma” was first recorded in Birmingham, England in 1983 and in Melbourne, Australia in 1987. The widespread wave of asthma attacks seems to be associated with heavy thunderstorms when pollen counts are high.

It happened again in Melbourne in 2016, killing eight people and sending about 8,000 to the emergency room.

No one understands why this happens because rain usually flushes pollen out of the air. In addition, the rye pollen spores in the Melbourne area were too large to be easily inhaled and usually remained in the sinuses before reaching the lungs.

So why do such rare pollen storms trigger such extreme reactions?

Researchers at the University of Georgia studied Australian events, He published a paper the following year. They found that a downdraft of cold air in a storm pumped mold and pollen into the clouds, where humidity levels and lighting caused spores to burst. Returning to the ground as very small debris, small particles can pass through the nose and sinuses and into the lungs.

“Our study found that pollen didn’t increase the day before the thunderstorm, so it’s strange to attribute the increase in hospitalization at least to pollen,” Jena said.

The levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone did not change the day before the thunderstorm, Jena said. But after the storm ended, all levels dropped.

“Previous studies have suggested that a sudden rise in temperature could cause respiratory problems, and a change in temperature was observed a few days before a thunderstorm,” he added.

“The last thing to note is that these findings are more than previous studies on this topic, as this was a study of thousands of thunderstorms across the United States and was consistent with high frequency data on environmental parameters and hospitalization. It has the potential to be generalized.”

The day before the storm is more dangerous

This study analyzes Medicare insurance claims when visiting an emergency room associated with acute respiratory distress between January 1999 and December 2012 and collects data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. County. And compared with lightning data.

“We found that ER visits increased in the days leading up to thunderstorms when temperatures increased and the amount of particulate matter in the air began to increase,” Jena said.

Particulate matter is a mixture of solids and liquids in the air. The dust, dirt, and smoke particles are large, but there are also some very small inhalable particles that are invisible to the naked eye. They are called PM 2.5 because they are typically less than 2.5 micrometers.

It’s really small-by comparison, the average human hair is 30 times more than PM 2.5 particles. Because they are so small, these particles can reach deep inside the lungs, causing havoc on our lungs and physical functioning.

According to different aspects of weather-high temperature, rain, wind speed, turbulence, sunlight, etc.-the level of influence of ozone and particles National Meteorological Office.. As the temperature rises, chemical reactions in the air accelerate, and turbulence and wind speeds affect the spread of pollutants in the area.

On the other hand, rain will wash away particulate matter.

Using census data, the study estimated that there were 37.7 million Americans over the age of 65. Using these figures, the study estimated that more than 3 days of dyspnea surrounding a major storm visited an additional 52,000 emergency rooms in 14 years.

“If you know that thunderstorms are coming, be careful as you are when you have a lot of pollen, and be a little extra careful,” Jena advised.

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