Air Pollution Linked to High Blood Pressure

Air pollution has become a serious problem both here in the United States and abroad. According to some statistics, it's responsible for more than 5.5 million deaths each year, making it the fourth leading cause of death. While many countries have passed new laws to curb airborne pollution, it remains a serious problem. Furthermore, there's new evidence suggesting that exposure to air pollution can lead to elevated blood pressure levels.

A team of researchers from the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health in Guangzhou, China scoured through data from more than a dozen existing studies involving air pollution and health. They discovered that short-term exposure to air pollution increased the number of hospital emergency room visits related to blood pressure spikes. What's even more alarming, however, is that long-term exposure to air pollution was linked with chronically high blood pressure (hypertension).

Of course, high blood pressure is a prime risk factor of stroke and heart disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, taking the lives of nearly half a million people in the U.S. each year. Among the most influential risk factors of heart is high blood pressure. When blood pressure rises beyond normal levels, there's a greater risk of stroke and other heart complications. This is why doctors and medical experts continue to stress the importance of maintaining healthy blood pressure levels.

Researchers defined high blood pressure as being characterized by a systolic reading greater than 140 mm Hg and a diastolic reading greater than 90 mm Hg. Blood pressure medication was also used to indicate whether or not a person had high blood pressure. If someone was taking medication for high blood pressure, researchers assumed that individual had high blood pressure.

The study involved common airborne pollutants like nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter.

"Our results demonstrated that air pollutants had both short-term and long-term effects on [high blood pressure] risks," said study author Tao Liu of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health in Guangzhou, China.

This study was published in the journal Hypertension.