Investigating the relationship between the geographical distribution of MS disease and climatic elements in Gilan province

Academic Thesis for Master's degree

Natural geography field Climatology trend in environmental planning

Abstract

One of the diseases of the present century that unfortunately, young people especially girls and young women are affected by is the disease (MS), the cause of which is still unknown according to expert doctors of the world and unfortunately they state various theories that do not have a correct scientific basis.

This disease is autoimmune or viral. They don't have convincing reasons for it, and what's more interesting is that they consider the virality of this disease as one of the reasons, even though it has not been proven for themselves, but they start interferon treatment and impose exorbitant costs on the helpless patient. The research data is based on the questionnaire, the information obtained from the relevant medical centers and meteorological stations of the province. The method of data analysis is descriptive and using SPSS software and GIS software has been used to prepare a distribution map of diseases and climatic elements. The results of the research show that the disease is spread everywhere in the study area and the results of the statistics show that the disease has spread the most in women and based on the zoning maps of the climatic elements and the overlapping of the elements, the role of the climatic element of sunlight has a more important role than other elements and if from childhood If solar radiation is used correctly, a person will be less likely to suffer from MS during adulthood.

Key words: disease, climatic elements, distribution of the disease, Guilan province

Introduction

The life of people with multiple sclerosis has always been challenging. MS is the most common progressive neuro-sensory disability in young adults, which is characterized by demyelination of the central nervous system.

This chronic and autoimmune disease with a variety of unpredictable signs and symptoms, such as impaired body coordination and balance, muscle cramps, fatigue, etc. . . It is determined. Currently, more than 2.5 million people worldwide and more than 500,000 people in America are suffering from MS. In Iran, according to the report of the Iranian MS Association, there are nearly 50,000 patients with MS in 2009. This disease affects women 2-3 times more than men and the most common age of occurrence is 20-30 years old. Therefore, it seems that women of childbearing age are the most vulnerable people against this disease. MS patients have a lower quality of life than healthy people (Tepavcevic, 2008). Knowledge of the geographical distribution of diseases is necessary for the health plans of each country so that the officials are informed of the position of each disease in the whole world and in different regions of the country and the necessary health measures for the residents of the regions in their health policies.

Medical geography, which is also referred to as health geography, is a new and important field of health research that is a link between geography and geographical aspects of health. Medical geography of health studies the effects of location and climate on human health, and its purpose is to understand the factors and variables that affect the health of the population and individuals. Since humans are always in direct contact with the climatic environment, this causes the way of their reaction in the atmospheric environment to be considered in terms of organism. On the other hand, the growing trend of climate change and rising earth's temperature may cause some diseases to change in the geographical areas under their influence. In fact, climatic conditions and natural barriers such as oceans, on the one hand, and the dependence of some infectious agents on specific carriers and reservoirs, on the other hand, have limited some diseases to certain areas of the globe. Chapter 1: Overview of the research 1-1. Statement of the problem

The body of each human being is like a city, each of the cells that make up our body is like one of the citizens of this city who have a specific task, the power plant and electrical wiring of this city is nothing but the central nervous system that includes the brain and spinal cord, with the help of fine nerve fibers that connect all the parts of the body to the brain and spinal cord, in fact the communication wiring of our body.

Inside these wirings too.

There is also an electric current inside these wirings, although with a much weaker intensity than that of electrocuting us, the nerve cord is protected by a covering material just like an electric wire.

This covering material called myelin is not only an insulator or protection for the cord itself, but also helps the electrical message to be transmitted at several times the speed, this myelin is one of the main actors of MS. In our body, when white blood cells mistakenly attack the myelin instead of a foreign factor, MS disease begins.

This disease affects the central nervous system in different parts so that the myelin covering the nerve fibers is attacked by the white blood cells of the body.

Researchers have shown that five factors are effective in the occurrence of this disease, which are: genetics, geographical distribution and environment (such as pollutants from urban life), Stress, immunological factors, microbes and viruses.

Research has shown that this disease becomes more prevalent as we move away from the equator, so that in cold regions we face a higher percentage of the disease. One of the reasons for this issue is the lack of vitamin D in cold regions, for example, MS is more common in northern Europe than in southern Europe, because in these areas there is less sunlight and vitamin D deficiency is more common, in Asian countries such as Japan, India and the Far East, the incidence of MS is lower and on the contrary it is increasing in Iran. The disease is different in different parts of the world, which is classified into three regions: 1) with low prevalence, 2) with moderate prevalence, and 3) with high prevalence. In a study conducted by Mohamad Abedini and his colleagues in 2008 in Mazandaran, the prevalence of MS in Iran is reported to be 1/20 per 100,000 people in areas with medium prevalence. Considering the increasing prevalence of MS in Iran, according to recent studies, the involvement of young people in this debilitating disease of the central nervous system and the heavy economic and psychological burden on affected patients (due to the progressive and debilitating course of the disease) as well as spending high costs for treatment and rehabilitation measures in these patients, it is important to investigate preventable risk factors (Azizi et al., 2013, p. 18).

1-2. The main research question (research problem)

Which climatic element has the most effect on MS disease?

1-3. Research objectives

-Inspection of MS disease status in Gilan province

-Investigation of climatic elements affecting the disease

-Providing solutions to prevent the disease

1-4. Hypothesis

-Climatic elements seem to have an effect on MS disease.

-Among the climatic elements, radiation, temperature and humidity affect the disease.

1-5. Applied purpose

The purpose of the research is to find the relationship between climatic elements and the geographical distribution of MS disease in Gilan province, which after the investigations carried out, this research can be used and investigated in MS research centers, MS patients' associations, MS sufferers and medical sciences universities.

1-6. The aspect of innovation

There have been many studies regarding the effect of climate on health and disease. But so far, no studies have been conducted on the effect of climatic elements on MS disease, and this research is for the first time in this regard. 1-7. The type of research method

In this research, it is descriptive and analytical and has been conducted with the following approach. This research is the effect of climate on MS disease. The main reason for choosing this methodology is climate elements and we want to examine the greatest impact that element has on the disease.

1-7-1. Information gathering methods

Each of the information gathering methods has its own tools. Therefore, in this research, in the form of library, documents and referring to computer sites, and the use of spatial and overlapping maps to identify the impact of climatic elements, it is one of the most important research tools.

1-7-2. Information gathering tools

Information gathering tools (sheets, tables, sampling, and databases and computer and satellite networks)

1-7-3.