You Can Usually Tell How Healthy Someone Is By The Month They Were Born, According To Research
Rawpixel.com | ShutterstockWe've always been told that our birth month has the potential to determine our personality type and future relationships, but what if the month you were born could reveal more about your health than you ever imagined?
A 2015 study published in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association revealed the discovery that the month you're born in plays a major role in your overall health. While your birthday doesn't automatically determine your destiny, these results suggest that it may give you a clue as to what your health will look like in later years.
One study found that certain birth months may indicate a higher risk of disease.
Researchers at Columbia University studied 1.7 million patients at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center over the course of 28 years to determine whether birth month impacts the types of diseases they are more at risk of. After comparing the participants' medical records to 1,688 different diseases, they discovered that 55 of these diseases seem to have a direct correlation to birth month.
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The study found that, overall, "people born in May had the lowest disease risk, and those born in October the highest." While the study presents some interesting findings, the researchers suggest taking the information with a grain of salt.
"It's important not to get overly nervous about these results because even though we found significant associations, the overall disease risk is not that great," said study senior author Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD, an assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and Columbia's Data Science Institute. "The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise."
Previous studies have reported seeing similar correlations between birth months and disease development.
Scientists concluded that July and October babies have a greater risk of asthma than babies born in any of the other months. But that's not all. They also found that "around one in 675 occurrences [of ADHD] could relate to being born in New York in November [while] people born in March [face] the highest risk for atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and mitral valve disorder." Those born in winter and early spring have the highest risk for various heart diseases.
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According to Science Daily, the results of this study are comparable to similar data collected from around the world. For example, an earlier Swedish study also found high rates of ADHD diagnosis in November and December babies. Also, this study echoed a Danish study that asthma risk was highest for those born in May through August when "Denmark's sunlight levels are similar to New York's in the July and October period," exactly the months this study found the highest asthma risk.
"This data could help scientists uncover new disease risk factors," Tatonetti explained. Researchers plan to replicate this method of study around the United States and abroad to see how various seasons and environmental factors affect these results.
Cassandra Rose Guerrier is a freelance writer, teacher, and editor with a focus on entertainment and trending topics. Her bylines have appeared in the Huffington Post, AskMen, and Thought Catalog, among others.
