The sun is the ultimate power bank. Without it, there’s no light, food, plants,
warmth, and no energy in general. But whatever the sun gives can also be taken away. And there
are certain dangers on the horizon, caused by that burning ball of nuclear reaction in the sky.
This is Unveiled and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
Do scientists really think the sun will cause mass heart attacks?
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While it’s no secret that long-term exposure to the sun can be lethal over time via skin cancer,
researchers have been studying its impact on our organs, as well - and especially
the heart. It turns out that our cardiac center isn’t free from solar threats. It’s all to do
with the rhythms of the sun, which we increasingly understand are pulsing and changing all the time.
More specifically, the sun has solar storms that
rage on its surface. And it’s the intensity of these storms that can end up affecting us.
Scientists know that the sun moves through a “solar cycle”; an eleven-year, repeating period of
solar activity. This cycle is measured by the amount of sunspots on the solar surface,
and sunspots are areas of instability that produce charged and major events
like solar storms, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections and loops.
While each is different, they all amount to bursts of energy, heat,
and light erupting out of the sun, increasing the power that it releases every so often.
During this eleven-year period - the solar cycle - these types of solar activity range from a minimum
to a maximum amount. There are times when we expect to see less of them happening, and times
when we expect to see far more. Whenever they push so far out from the sun that their effects
significantly breach the Earth’s magnetosphere, carried along via solar wind, we speak
of geomagnetic storms. And, depending on the intensity, this is when the power of the sun - so
reliable most of the time - can have a direct and usually negative impact on life on our planet.
Temperatures can rise at the peak of a solar cycle, but the problems are more than that.
Animals that rely on Earth’s magnetic field for navigation can become confused;
some satellite technologies can also be scrambled; and solar activity has also been directly linked
to mental health, with a 2004 study tying surging mental illness rates with similarly surging
numbers of flares. The claim is that the extra UV light from the sun mutates cells in our bodies,
which can lead to neuro-chemical issues. A more recent study moves from the brain to the
heart, however, to suggest that solar activity and cardiac health are also connected. First published
in September 2019, in the journal “Environmental Health”, Doctor Carolina Leticia Zilli Vieira
led her Harvard University team to analyze the data from 263 US cities, between the years 1985
and 2013. The team looked at the statistics for both general deaths and deaths caused by stroke,
cardiovascular disease, and heart attack during that time… and then matched those numbers to the
solar cycle, to the rises and falls of solar activity felt on Earth. It was found that
disruptions in Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar storms and geomagnetic disturbances
did directly correlate, particularly with CVD deaths and heart attacks. Compared to
the years when the sun wasn’t so active, up to 0.7% more people died during those when the sun
did have more sunspots, flares, and CMEs. It was also found that more heart-related
deaths occurred even on the specific days when solar activity was higher.
Based on these findings, it would seem the sun does have an impact on our hearts.
Although correlation doesn’t prove causation, the research didn’t stop there. To further study the
relationship between the sun and heart health, the team next analyzed electrocardiograms - effective
“heart health checks” - for over 800 elderly men in the United States. Those analyzed will
continue to be studied into the future, but even the initial findings made public in 2022
were revealing. It was found that if a solar storm had hit Earth a day before an electrocardiogram
was given, the subjects showed a noticeable and stark reduction in heart rate variability, or HRV.
HRV is the amount of variation in time between heartbeats, and it can predict how healthy (or
unhealthy) someone is in general. High HRV means that your heart is very adaptable,
it’s able to vary with its environment, which generally leads to happier and healthier lives
with less stress. Low HRV (as seen on the one-day-post-solar-storm tests) is an issue,
however, because it means that your heart is struggling to adapt, which may be a sign of
further health problems. Essentially, with those that were checked after increased solar activity,
their heart was working harder than it should be. Again, then, the sun does appear to directly
affect the heart, this time demanding that it does more to keep a person alive.
One conclusion to draw from both of these studies is that increased solar activity really could be
linked to mass heart attacks. It seemingly has been in the past, and it seemingly does stress
the heart out. As such, and as we’re currently approaching the peak of the latest solar cycle,
some have interpreted the Harvard study as a prediction for the possibility
of mass casualties in a few years. Solar cycle 25 - the current solar cycle - is scheduled to
peak at solar maximum between the years 2023 and 2026, so we could now be entering into a
particularly concerning time, where storms, flares, and CMEs are at their highest.
The idea of the sun triggering heart attacks and even deaths, despite it being so far away from us,
perhaps seems a little unbelievable… but researchers are quick to remind us that
it accounts for ninety-nine percent of all the mass in our solar system. So it isn’t
so surprising that it could have an effect on us. More broadly, scientists know that the up
and down release of charged particles from the sun can impact other biological rhythms,
like circadian rhythms, for example, governing how we sleep. And that, in itself,
is more important than is generally given credit for, as it’s known that inconsistent or bad
sleep can lead to conditions like diabetes, obesity, depression, and more. And, in 2021,
the same Doctor Zilli Vieira co-authored more research that showed solar-driven geomagnetic
disturbances can lead to spikes in blood pressure, too, again in elderly men. The
more sunspots there are on the sun, the higher some people’s blood pressure rises.
Nevertheless, the “how” of all this is still quite unknown. Why exactly do changes to the sun
(and the subsequent changes to the Earth’s magnetic field) cause us all these problems?
It’s suspected that the magnetism of Earth has an influence on the makeup of human cells, hormones,
and biological chemicals… but there’s no sure-fire explanation. But,
although the precise mechanisms aren’t fully understood, there’s increasingly little doubt
that there is a connection. The original 2019 study itself summarizes it best,
saying that geomagnetic disturbances “are likely to induce a cascade of reactions
in the body’s electrophysiology that culminate in the collapse of organ functions and death”.
The good news? Solar Cycle 25 overall is predicted to be weaker than normal,
meaning it shouldn’t cause quite as much damage as it maybe could’ve done. But,
that said, the cycles over the past few decades, including those between 1985
and 2013, had also been projected to be relatively weak… and they still resulted in many apparently
excess, sun-related, heart-related deaths. And, what’s more, the cycles to come in the future,
after Solar Cycle 25, are already being described as potentially much stronger.
It’s a problem, then, that isn’t going away. And those researching it are keen that their work
will inspire the development of precautionary measures, in the years to come. But, for now,
that’s why scientists really do think that the sun will cause mass heart attacks.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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