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Whether or not you’re a fan of astrology, science now says that your birth month could have influence on your risk for disease.
Now don’t read into this incorrectly. Science still believes that there isn’t much to actual astrology. But your birth season can be a pretty good predictor of how likely you are to develop some diseases.
A study done by Mary Regina Boland and Nicholas Tatonetti at the Columbia University Department of Medicine examined 1.75 million patients between 1900 and 2000. They looked for any correlation between disease and birth month. They looked through 1,688 diseases.
55 had a correlation with birth month. These diseases include very common ones, like ADHD and asthma, as well as conditions like reproductive performance, eyesight, and ear infecctions.
Of course, your birth month isn’t the ultimate deciding factor here. Researchers stress that diet, medical care, and exercise are all more likely influences.
But the correlation was strong. The months that they found were most associated with an incrased risk were October and November. February, March, April, May, and July were all found to have decreased risk of disease. The rest of the months had no advantage or disadvantage.
More specifically, October and November birthdays are at higher risk for reproductive and neurological illnesses. For cardiovascular disease, winter and spring birthdays were at a higher risk.
Investigators are unsure why these months are associated with disease risk, but they think it has something to do with the environment into which the baby is born. For example, a baby exposed to dust mites in their first three months have a 40 percent higher risk of developing asthma.
Investigators hope the study can help other researchers, since they collected such an enormous amount of data. Not only can it help with further research about birth month and disease, but it can help other disease-related research projects, too.
