Solar time, the neurologist: “Time change increases the risk of heart attacks”

Solar time? “We know that in the weeks following the time changes, as well as on Monday, there is an increase in cases of myocardial infarction all over the world. really heavy”. Liborio Parrino, head of the Sleep Medicine Center and director of Neurology of the University Hospital of Parma, says this to Adnkronos Salute on the eve of the return of solar time. “All the studies agree – says the expert – that there is an increase in the risk of acute heart disease in the period following the change” of schedule. And cardiological risk isn’t the only physical repercussion. “We also have psychological stress, those suffering from depression can have this immediate shift that can lead to worsening. A vegetative and hormonal stress because everything that concerns the difficult balance of hormone control is regulated by the sleep-wake rhythm and by light. “. Good news for the night owls though. “The ‘owls’ if it gets dark before or after dark are not affected that much” while “the ‘larks'”, or early risers, “suffer much more from the change of time”. In any case, for the neurologist, “you have to leave the clock always the same, yes if you always leave the solar time or always the legal one but you must not move these blessed hands every six months, which are a psychological and organic trauma for most people. fragile or more sensitive to this type of oscillation “.” Even the American academy of sleep medicine, that is perhaps the most important world authority – remembers Parrino – last year published a work in which the leading experts who met they said ‘just change the clock’ “. But between daylight saving time and solar time which one would be preferable to keep? “We as sleep scientists – explains the doctor – are more in favor of solar time because it helps people to go to bed a little earlier in the evening because it gets dark earlier, but the important thing is to keep the same time all the time. year”. “We have to recover the time of the seasons that we have completely lost – says Parrino -. There is a time of light and a time of darkness. They all talk about the environment and then when we have to put into practice a relationship with nature a little more direct and sincere there are objections. The right time – he insists – is the solar one, because he commands, we do not command. The economic excuse according to which one saves in this way because less energy is consumed – he says – now no longer makes sense: with the dark the activities continue with lights on, air conditioning, open rooms, in short, it seems to me an inelegant and unclear speech “.