Have you ever wondered what common household items, the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat might have in common?
The scary answer is they all might contain small amounts of harmful metals! These metals, like lead, cadmium, and arsenic, are not good for our health, especially for our hearts.
What’s the Issue?
The American Heart Association has shared some new scientific findings. They found that when we’re exposed to even tiny amounts of lead, cadmium, and arsenic, it could hurt our heart health.
These harmful metals can be found everywhere: in our homes, the air, water, soil, and even the food we eat. If we get exposed to these metals over a long time, we could be at a higher risk of heart diseases.
Who Says So?
The head of the team that wrote this scientific statement is Dr. Gervasio A. Lamas. He works at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
He believes that most people, nearly everyone in fact, are exposed to these harmful metals.
This exposure could lead to severe heart diseases like heart attacks and strokes. Even diseases of the arteries in our legs could be caused by these metals.
Where Do These Metals Come From?
You might be thinking, “Where are these metals coming from?”. The answer is they’re all around us.
For example, lead could be found in old house paint, tobacco products, second-hand smoke, food, water pipes, spices, cosmetics, and even in electronics.
Cadmium is another sneaky metal. It’s found in batteries, pigments (used to give color to things), plastic, ceramics, glassware, and construction materials. Also, some fertilizers used to grow vegetables have cadmium.
Then there’s arsenic. This one mostly comes from groundwater. That means it could be in the drinking water, soil, and even the food grown in contaminated soil. Rice is one food that can absorb arsenic more than others.
Who’s Most At Risk?
People who live close to busy roads, industries, or dangerous waste sites are at a higher risk. People living in older houses or in areas with poor environmental laws are also more exposed to these metals.
These communities often have less money and are unfairly exposed to toxic metals.
How Do These Metals Hurt Our Heart?
Research from all around the world has confirmed that lead, cadmium, and arsenic can cause heart diseases and even early death.
A study from 2021 found that toxic metals could increase the risk of peripheral artery disease (a condition where blood vessels outside your heart get narrow or blocked).
Another study from 2018 showed that higher levels of these metals in urine and blood could increase the risk of stroke and heart disease by 15%-85%.
What Can We Do About It?
The first step is to know how much of these metals are in our environment and in our bodies. For kids who show symptoms of metal exposure, doctors often do blood tests.
But there aren’t any rules about testing adults unless they work in specific jobs.
But it’s not all bad news! There are things we can do. We can try to reduce our exposure to metals in tobacco, protect our water systems, and minimize metal contamination in our air, food, and soil.
Scientists are also working on some cool solutions. They’re researching medicines that can remove these metals from our bodies.
They’re even looking at some nutritional supplements that might help us get rid of these metals faster.
So, while these hidden dangers of metals might sound scary, there’s a lot we can do. Scientists and doctors are working hard to keep us safe.
But it’s also essential that we all know about these risks and try to live in a clean and healthy environment.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about two effective ways to quickly restore normal heart rhythm, and vitamin K may lower your heart disease risk by a third.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies that vitamin D may protect you from type 2 diabetes, and results showing this deadly spider may help treat heart attacks.
The study was published in Circulation.
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