If you have an affinity for the Sun-God, such as Egypt’s Re, that is:
The sun goes through cycles of high and low activity that repeat approximately every 11 years. During periods of high activity, it blasts out charged particles and magnetised plasma that can distort Earth’s magnetic field.
These so-called solar storms can cause glitches in our power grids and bring down Earth-orbiting satellites. A handful of studies have also hinted that they increase the risk of heart attacks, but these were too small to be conclusive.
To explore further, Carolina Zilli Vieira at Harvard University and her colleagues analysed records of deaths between 1985 and 2013 in 263 US cities. They then compared heart-related fatalities with solar storm data.
They found that more heart disease deaths occurred on days when solar storms had disturbed Earth’s magnetic field.
For each year of high solar activity during that period, they estimate that an additional 5500 people in the US died of heart attacks or other cardiovascular complications. [“Solar storms may cause up to 5500 heart-related deaths in a given year,” Alice Klein, NewScientist (25 June 2022, paywall)\
Which is about the last thing I would have expected from the mild-mannered species of solar storms.
Maybe the folks in tinfoil hats are on to something after all.
