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How even a quick trip to a heavily polluted city affects your heart
Pick almost any chronic disease around, and I can find you scientific evidence that air pollution increases the risk of it…
Diabetes. Alzheimer’s. Heart disease. Breast cancer. It plays a part in them all.
That’s why, whenever I write about the health risks associated with air pollution, I offer an impractical but potentially lifesaving piece of advice to people living in highly polluted areas — move.
Why put yourself at risk for so many dangerous diseases when you could just live somewhere with cleaner air?
Of course, there are tons of problems with my suggestion, and I know it…
A lot of people can’t move because of jobs, family commitments, financial situations, etc. And then there’s this other factor I didn’t know about…
It turns out you don’t even have to live somewhere with highly polluted air to damage your health. You just have to visit…
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Air pollution affects your heart health in just six to eight weeks
A new study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found that a short-term visit to a heavily polluted city takes a toll on your health.
The study included 26 healthy, non-smoking adults who traveled from Los Angeles to Beijing. They stayed in Beijing for 10 weeks.
Study participants were split into two groups. The first group had a blood sample drawn after eight weeks in Beijing and the second group had a blood sample drawn after six weeks in Beijing. And guess what?
Even after this short time in one of the most polluted cities in the world, people had higher levels of oxidized fat in their blood, which is tied to heart inflammation. They also experienced a change in enzyme function, which is linked to heart disease. You know what else?
Study participants had 800 percent more air pollutants in their bodies than they did when they were in Los Angeles. 800 percent!
What does this prove?
That even a short time in a polluted place probably increases your risk for heart disease… and potentially other diseases.
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Avoiding air pollution-related health risks
Now, you may still be wondering… what happened when these people went back to L.A.? Did their health markers return to normal?
For the most part, yes. But it took four to seven weeks for the negative changes to reverse. So, the moral of the story? You shouldn’t travel to highly polluted cities carelessly, especially if you already have health issues.
Today, the world’s most polluted cities are primarily in China, India, and Bangladesh. There are some in Africa and the Middle East too. So, if you’re a world traveler (or plan to become one) check the air quality of all the cities on your itinerary.
If you do travel to polluted cities, follow a few pieces of advice to protect your health while you’re there:
- Avoid intense physical activity, like running or hiking, outdoors.
- If you have cardiovascular health conditions, think twice about traveling to polluted cities for extended periods of time, especially around peak times of high air pollution.
- If you have cardiovascular health issues and you must travel to a polluted city for an extended period, stay indoors as much as possible and keep air purifiers running.
Now, in the U.S., air pollution isn’t nearly as bad as in other parts of the world. But did you know there was a point where the air quality in Los Angeles was almost as bad as the air quality in Beijing? That changed thanks to effective environmental policies. But Los Angeles (and many other cities in California) are still among the most polluted cities in the U.S.
If you live in an urban area in California or elsewhere in the U.S., keep up with air quality in your area using the government’s AirNow air quality app or the EnviroFlash program, which provides air quality alert emails. When air quality is bad, avoid spending long periods of time outside to keep yourself safe.
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Sources:
- Study finds even a short-term visit to a severely polluted city is bad for your health — MedicalXpress
- Pro-Oxidative and Pro-Inflammatory Effects After Traveling from Los Angeles to Beijing: A Biomarker-Based Natural Experiment — Circulation
- Is Delhi the most polluted city on Earth? Not quite — The Telegraph
By Jenny Smiechowski
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