Air pollution triggers heart attack

Louisville, Kentucky, March 24: According to a latest research by the University of Louisville, air pollution is a crucial factor in triggering the risk of heart attack in people.

It was hitherto believed that lifestyle choices or genesdefine were the only factors behind the heart disease.

The study by the U.S researchers has found a link between heart attacks and air pollution, which has eventually led to a relatively new health field, named environmental cardiologydefine. As such, living and breathing amidst air pollution means inhaling a heart attack, say the researchers.

According to Aruni Bhatnagar of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, there was sufficient evidence to support the suggestion that the risk of heart attacks, and even death, increases manyfold with an increase in particulate air pollution. The research found that microscopic particles present in the polluted air can enter into the lungs, and finally enter the blood stream.

The study further suggested that the greater the time spent in traffic, the higher is the risk of heart attacks in people.

Cardiovascular disease or heart attack, as it is commonly known, is one of the main causes of death in today’s world. In U.S. alone, nearly one million people fall victims to this deadly disease, which is about 40 percent of the total deaths in the whole world.

A symposium titled “Environmental Factors in Heart Disease” is being organized by Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar and Dr. Robert Brook of the University of Michigan at an Experimental Biology conference on April 21. The annual Experimental Biology conference, to be held in New Orleans, will be sponsored by American Physiological Society.

Dr. Brook will talk on relationship between hypertension and environmental pollution. Dr. Bhatnagar will be speaking about heart disease and environmental aldehydes exposure.

There have been a host of earlier studies which also found a link between heart disease and air pollution.

In one such study conducted in Salt Lake City, it was found that the mortality rate in the nearby area dropped by 4-6 percent when a steel mill was shut for some time. However, the mortality rate climbed to the previous levels once the mill was reopened.
Similarly, a study based on the data collected from six U.S. cities revealed that those who resided in the cities with higher pollution levels died earlier, primarily due to the heart disease.

The latest study found the elderly and those suffering from coronary heart disease to be the most susceptible to environmental pollution. Further, the findings revealed that women, obese people and diabetics might be at an increased risk too.

Dr. Brook, whose research has focused the relation between hypertension and air pollution, stated that there is a sudden spike in the blood pressure within 15 minutes of inhaling the ultra-fine air pollutants.