What your month of birth says about your health

It turns out there might be some real evidence behind the idea that the stars you were born under determine your destiny.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York have developed a algorithm which has found that there is a relationship between your month of birth and risk level from certain diseases. From looking at New York City medical databases they found 55 diseases that correlated with the season of birth.

People born in May had the lowest risk of disease, and those born in October the highest, according to the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

The research shows that around one in 675 occurrences of ADHD could relate to being born in November, asthma risk is greatest for July and October babies, and there are several types of heart disease you're more likely to get if you're born in March. October babies are also more likely to get an STI at some point.

January - Hypertension, cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease)

February - Lung and bronchial cancer

March - Cardiac failure, mitral valve disorder, arrhythmia

April - Angina

May - a lucky month with no increased likelihood of disease

June - preinfarction syndrome (severe angina)

July - asthma

August - another lucky month

September - vomiting

October - insect bites, STIs, chest infections

November - least likely to develop arrhythmia, mitral valve disorder and lung cancer

December - bruising

The study's authors hope that the data could help uncover new disease risk factors.

"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 Dr. Tatonetti, an assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University Medical Center.

"The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise."

Statistical tests were performed to check that the correlations were not the cause of chance, and the study's findings are consistent with other research carried out in Sweden, Denmark and Austria. The team plans to replicate the study for several other U.S. cities to see if season and environmental factors affect the data.

More: The one simple test to see if you have a healthy brain