25-09 - Flipbook - Page 24
Mi n i str i es
When Jake was five months old, he had his first tonic-clonic seizure, his little body stiffening
and then jerking rapidly. "It was extremely hot, he had overheated and we witnessed what
we thought would be the scariest thing we would ever see," says his mother, Stephanie
Smith. "Unfortunately, it wasn't."
Seizures began to crop up often in hot weather. As soon as the stifling, humid days of summer would arrive, the family would resort to all kinds of cooling methods and a fierce battle
to keep the seizures at bay would ensue.
Following a genetic test at the age of 18 months, Jake was diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a neurological condition that includes a form of epilepsy and affects around one in
15,000 children. Seizures are often accompanied by intellectual disability and a range of
comorbidities such as autism and ADHD, as well as difficulties with speech, mobility, eating
and sleep. Heat and sudden temperature changes can bring on a seizure.
Jake is now 13 years old, but has endured countless seizures with the turn of the weather, his
mother says. "Increasingly hot summers and heatwaves are adding to the burden of living
with this already devastating condition," says Smith.
Dravet Syndrome is just one of many neurological diseases that are exacerbated by higher
temperatures, says Sanjay Sisodiya of University College London and a pioneer in the field of
climate change's impact on the brain. A neurologist who specialises in epilepsy, he frequently heard from patients' families that they had more troubles during heatwaves. "And I
thought to myself, of course, why shouldn't climate change also affect the brain? After all,
so many processes in the brain are involved in how the body copes with heat."
As he dug into the scientific literature, he discovered a range of neurological conditions
that are made worse by rising heat and humidity, including epilepsy, stroke, encephalitis,
multiple sclerosis, migraine, along with a number of others. He also discovered that the effects of climate change on our brains are already becoming visible.
