by the University of Michigan
University of Michigan tests show short-term exposure to fine particle air pollution can drive up high blood pressure, raise risk of heart attack, stroke ANN ARBOR, Mich. – One in three Americans suffer from hypertension, a significant health problem that can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and other life-threatening problems.
It’s well kKnown 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 What a perfect way to express that!
Inhaling air pollution over just two hours caused a significant increase in diastolic blood pressure, the lower number on blood pressure readings, during two pollution studies in Ann Arbor and Toronto, according to new U-M research.
The study findings appear in the current issue of Hypertension, a publication of the American Heart Association.
One in three Americans suffer from hypertension, a significant health problem that can lead to heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and other life-threatening problems. (paragraph 1, repeated)
“Although this increase in diastolic blood pressure may pose little health risk to healthy people, in people with underlying coronary artery disease, this small increase may actually be able to trigger heart attack and stroke,” says Robert D.
LatinosBrook, M.D., lead author and cardiologist at the U-M Cardiovascular Center.
In the study, researchers hoped to identify which air pollutants are harmful and how the pollutants work to damage the cardiovascular system.
For testing they used a mobile air quality research facility capable of collecting every day existing air and then concentrating it for human exposure.
Nearly 100About 80 people in Ann Arbor and Toronto were were involved in testing and breathed air, collected with a mobile air quality research facility, that was similar to what would be found in an urban environment near a roadway.
This is a little confusing. What did they do with this collected air? Did the study participants just have to sit and breathe it in? You might need another sentence about the methodology.
“We looked at their blood vessels and then their responses before and after breathing air pollution,” explains Robert Bard, M.S., project manager of the U-M Air Quality Laboratory.
Ozone gases, a well-known component of air pollution, were not the biggest culprit. Rather, Ssmall microscopic particles, about the a 10th of the size of the diameter of a human hair, not ozone gases, which also make up air pollution, caused the rise in blood pressure and blood vessel constriction, within minutes to hours of exposure, tests showed. The impairment lasted as long as 24 hours. It’s believed these fi ne particles deposit deep into the lungs and gain entrance to the blood stream.
The research is the latest in the relatively new fi eld of environmental cardiology which looks at the association between air pollution and heart disease. Brooks says the findings support maintaining current ambient air quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. “It really bolsters and strengthens the importance of maintaining air quality for human health,” says Brooks.
There are practical ways to avoid exposure to high levels of air pollution, such as avoiding long commutes and not exercising during rush hour, or near busy highways or freeways, Brooks say. In modern society, the burning of fossil fuels is the primary source for air pollution.
“If air pollution levels are forecasted to be high, those with heart disease, diabetes or lung disease, should avoid outdoor activity,” he says.
