Air Pollution – Heart Related Hazards

We know that what we’re looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestack. Some air pollution is not seen, but its pungent smell alerts for you.

According to The American Heart Association, someone dies from cardiovascular disease every 40 seconds in the United States. Almost half of an Americans have at least one of three main risk factors for heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a smoking habit. Doctor’s tells their patients to exercise more, watch what they eat, and to quit smoking to lower their cardiovascular risk, but there are other factors that we should be also recognize as having an impact on our heart health, like air pollution exposure.

An association between the high levels of anthropogenic air pollutants and human illnesses has been known for more than half of a century. A few episodes of markedly increased of mortality rates during extreme elevations in urban pollution.

Air Pollution – Heart Related Hazards

Each year, an American Heart Association, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health & other government agencies, compiles up-to-date statistics on heart disease & other Heart vascular diseases.

Pollution can come from traffic, factories, power generation, wildfires or even cooking with a wood stove. One of the most common indoor sources is smoking, a dangerous to the person lighting up and to those nearby.

MESA

MESA Air provides evidence that the long-term exposure to air pollution is a cardiovascular disease risk factor, that should be taken as seriously. In addition of encouraging policy makers to consider as the long-term impacts of low levels of air particle pollution and motivating healthcare providers to the effects of air pollution on the cardiovascular system, the study emphasizes the importance of monitoring air quality to protect heart.

People are breathing in air pollution like carbon monoxide and particulate matter, which are tiny air particles composed of noxious substances. Some researchers are concerned about particulates that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller, which is most commonly found in car exhaust. The small size of these particulates are allows them to easily enter the body and poses a greater risk to the circulatory system than other common pollutants.

Medical researchers are particularly concerned about pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns, which are usually related to fuel combustion. Because they are so tiny, they aren’t easily screened and more readily enter the human body. Then they begin to irritate the lungs and blood vessels around the heart. Data suggests that over time pollutants aggravate or increase the process of disease in the arteries.

Avoiding Air Pollution when You Have a Heart Condition

While it is nearly impossible to avoid all the forms of air pollution, it is recommended that heart disease patients avoid spending a long periods of time in areas of high pollution, such as near busy roads, factories or railways.

Being physically active can be improve heart and circulatory health, but consider reducing the amount of exercise have done outdoors if the air pollution in your area is high.

Epidemiology studies have used blood and urine to look for mechanistic markers for the cardiovascular changes.

Range

•      6.9 percent increase in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, with a stronger association between the pollution and cardiac arrests in men and people 65 and older.
•      2.07 percent increase in emergency department visits for ischemic heart disease.
•      1.86 percent increases in hospitalizations for ischemic heart disease, with a stronger association in women and people 65 and older.
•           The risk of death is greater from long-term exposure. Current science suggests air pollution facilitates atherosclerosis development and progression, said the scientific panel that worked on the statement. It also may play a role in high blood pressure heart failure and diabetes.https://youtu.be/d9K6JqFBrvA