As heart disease marches on as the leading killer of Americans and those in western societies, researchers isolate yet another factor to be implicated in the advancement of this largely preventable disease. Poor diet, lack of physical activity, smoking and environmental and household pollutants all promote metabolic dysfunction that lead to ultimate arterial deterioration and an untimely death. Fortunately, health-minded individuals can make changes to prevent and even reverse heart disease.
A research team from the University of Michigan School of Public Health has shown that long term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, commonly known as "hardening of the arteries". Lead author of the study, Dr. Sara Adar and her team have published their findings in the journal, PLOS Medicine. Dr. Adar noted "Our findings help us to understand how it is that exposures to air pollution may cause the increases in heart attacks and strokes observed by other studies."
The scientists followed 5,362 people between the ages of 45 and 84 from six U.S. metropolitan areas enrolled as part of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution. None of the participants had a pre-existing history of heart disease at the outset of the study. The researchers were able to link estimated air pollution levels at each person's house with two ultrasound measurements of blood vessel elasticity, separated by about three years.