RNS: Pollution/Environment and Heart Disease, September 2009
TIME: 2:53
URL: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1273
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
Inhaling a heart attack: How air pollution can cause heart disease
University of Michigan tests show short-term exposure to fine particle air pollution can drive up high blood pressure, raise risk of heart attack
Suggested lead: One in three Americans suffer from hypertension, a significant health problem that can lead to cardiovascular disease, heart failure, stroke, diabetes and other life-threatening problems. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System have determined that the very air we breathe can be an invisible catalyst to cardiovascular disease. Here is Andi McDonnell with more.
It’s well known that measures such as exercise, a healthy diet and not smoking can help reduce high blood pressure, but researchers at the University of Michigan Health System have determined the very air we breathe can be an invisible catalyst to heart disease.
Inhaling air pollution over just two hours caused a significant increase in diastolic blood pressure, the lower number on blood pressure readings, according to new U-M research.
In the study, researchers hoped to identify which air pollutants are harmful and how the pollutants work to damage the cardiovascular system.
Ozone gases, a well-known component of air pollution, were not the biggest culprit. Rather, small microscopic particles about a 10th of the diameter of a human hair caused the rise in blood pressure and blood vessel constriction, tests showed. The impairment lasted as long as 24 hours.
Dr. Robert D. Brook, (M.D.), lead author on the study and cardiologist at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center tells us.
“When we breathe in the fine particles they’re actually able to deposit all the way down to the base and the smallest airways in the lungs. There they can cause a host of different types of responses. At that point they can elicit an inflammatory response in the lungs which can then, we believe, spill over throughout the entire cardiovascular system and cause very rapid changes in the function of the heart, of the blood vessels. At the same time, some of these very small compounds might even be able to leech off into the circulation and have direct effects on the heart, the kidneys, the brain and other vital organs in a very rapid manner.”
The research is the latest in the relatively new field of environmental cardiology which looks at the association between air pollution and heart disease. Brook says the findings support maintaining current ambient air quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Brook suggests ways to protect yourself.
“I think there are very important practical measures that one could take to try to avoid exposure to high levels of air pollution. Most of these are very practical, feasible methods such as trying to avoid exposure to high levels of traffic and using common sense, not exercising during rush hour times or by busy highways or freeways. And if indeed it’s shown from the sources where air pollution levels are forecasted that the levels are going to be high to potentially avoid outdoor activity if you’re one that’s at very high risk, such as somebody with underlying heart disease, diabetes or lung disease.”
The study findings appear in the September 1, 2009 issue of Hypertension, a publication of the American Heart Association.
Andi McDonnell, UM Health System News
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