Call the astrologers; a study suggests you can figure out what disease you are most likely to have, depending on your birth month.
Columbia University Medical Center data scientists conducted a study that found a correlation between the month you are born and your risk for developing various health problems, according to the Huffington Post. The study shows instances of diseases such as heart conditions, ADHD, and infections seem to correspond with the seasons.
Researchers studied 1.7 million people and looked for more than 1,600 diseases among the group. According to The Huffington Post, "55 of those diseases were 'significantly dependent' on the birth month."
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"Seasonality is a proxy for variable environmental factors present at the time of your birth, and we are learning more about the very large role that environment, and gene-environment interactions, plays in our development," Dr. Nicholas Tatonetti, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at the university and the study's lead author, said in the Huffington Post article. "This could be one way to start mapping out those gene-environment effects.”
Here are some of the trends researchers found, according to The Huffington Post:
- People born in October had the highest risk of diseases while those born in May had the lowest risk.
- July and October births had the highest risk of asthma.
- November had the highest risk of ADHD.
- Babies born during the winter had the highest risk of neurological problems.
Read more at The Huffington Post and in the study's Oxford Journal.
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