Could Air Pollution Be The Real Culprit Behind Heart Disease?
Cholesterol… it’s a word that can send shivers down your spine… because as you are very well aware by now, it is supposedly the number one villain behind heart disease.
At least, that’s what we’ve been told by the mainstream for the last forty-odd years…
Of course, here at Agora Health we believe that the entire cholesterol and heart disease hypothesis is based on outdated, inaccurate and biased science that serves Big Pharma more than it helps people combat cardiovascular disease.
The air that we breathe
And now, the largest epidemiological study conducted in the developing world may just show that we were right all along.
Research has shown that cities with the highest levels of fine particulate air pollution, known as PM2.5, also have higher death rates from heart and respiratory diseases. In China in particular, which has severe air pollution, deaths from chronic diseases including heart and lung disease have been steadily on the rise.
For this latest study, Chinese researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai looked at air pollution levels and mortality rates in 272 Chinese cities, which have a combined population of 323 million people.
Their results, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, showed that between 2013 and 2015, the average PM2.5 levels in the cities were five times higher than the safety levels recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). At the levels being recorded in China, heart disease is 1.35 times more likely, the risk for hypertension nearly doubles, while for coronary heart disease it increases 1.5 times.
The Chinese researchers noted that the link between air pollution and an increased risk of chronic disease, like heart disease, is harder to see in Western countries because air pollution has been improving over the past 40 years, and, as a result, heart disease has also been in decline.
However, researchers at King’s College London recently confirmed that high levels of toxic air particles from traffic and combustion are associated with an increase in hospitalisations and deaths from heart and lung disease in children and younger adults.
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Sources:
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published online, February 10, 2017
Defra National Statistics Release: Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2015, published online. gov.uk
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I’ve been saying this for years. I live in London and there are days when the air pollution is so bad that I actually get chest pains and I choke when I breathe.