If Your Birthday Is Coming Up, Be Careful

Ryan McVay/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- People are 14 percent more likely to kick the bucket on their birthday than any other day of the year, according to Swiss researchers.

The odds grow as people grow older, with those 60 and older at an 18.6 percent greater risk of dying on the day they should be celebrating a milestone.

As a result, the various causes of death also increase substantially on birthdays, such as a 10.8 percent higher risk of dying from cancer, a 21.5 percent greater chance of death from a stroke, a 28.5 percent increased chance of accidental death, including a 44 percent boost in fatal falls, and a 34.9 percent bigger chance of committing suicide on one’s birthday.

The study, published in the Annals of Epidemiology, doesn’t really get into what explains this phenomenon, perhaps because the researchers don’t know for sure themselves.

They can only speculate that it might have to do with the stress of suffering an anniversary or for the elderly, hanging on long enough to reach another milestone.

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