A review article on the seasonal patterns across twelve cardiovascular diseases found that temperature, vitamin D, serum cholesterol level, physical inactivity, coagulation factors, hormones, air pollution, infections, age, sex, diet and obesity play an important role in determining the seasonal variability of cardiovascular diseases.
The twelve cardiovascular diseases in discussion are: deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection and rupture, stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, hypertension, heart failure, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, ventricular arrythmia and atrial fibrillation.
The review paper found that though a clear association between seasons and heart diseases is unknown, several theories have found that development of a disease in winter is more than other times in the year.
“It seems that the risk of cardiovascular diseases appears to be greatest during the winter months, particularly in elderly people,” it said.