Slovak doctor says solar flares could raise strokes

Human beings may be at higher risk of strokes in years when the explosions on the sun peak, according to a neurologist who studied the records of 6,100 patients in Slovakia.Dr. Michal Kovac said he found a spike in strokes and brain hemorrhages in the town of Nove Zamky in southern Slovakia in years when solar flares -- bursts of energy stronger than a million nuclear bombs combined -- are most abundant.

Kovac says his work, recently published in the Bratislava Medical Journal, builds on studies that show parts of the human body respond to fluctuations in the earth's geomagnetic field caused by sun storms. He also found patients suffered fewer strokes when the moon was farthest from earth.

"We see a correlation between the human body and lunar and solar phenomena, even if we don't know exactly what explains the connection," he told Reuters.

Coronal mass ejections, which peak roughly every 11 years, send hot gas toward earth that cause radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions, illuminate skies around the north and south poles and are believed to impair the navigational ability of pigeons.

Despite skepticism from astronomers, Kovac and colleagues in the U.S. and Japan think fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field caused by the ejections may disturb the electro-chemical reactions that make human bodies work. He began his research in the 1980s after observing unexplained increases in stroke patients on certain days, weeks, months and years. - reuters