When you breathe dirty air, it’s not just bad for your lungs; it can also harm your heart. A recent study found that, over the years, bad air has made heart problems worse for many people around the world.
From 1990 to 2019, there was a big rise in heart diseases because of tiny bits of dirt in the air.
This dirty air came from cars, factories, and even wildfires. At home, burning coal or wood without proper air flow can also produce this dirty air.
Men and Women Both Affected
More men than women faced heart problems because of this pollution. Areas where people have less money faced bigger challenges than places where people have more money.
Here’s something interesting: while fewer people died from these heart problems over the years, more people lived with pains and other health issues because of them.
So, while some got better treatment and lived longer, they didn’t always live comfortably.
The study looked at data from many countries – a total of 204. It looked at information from satellites in the sky and machines on the ground that can tell how dirty the air is.
The main focus of this study was to understand how bad air affects heart health all over the world.
The Bad Air and Your Heart
Now, you might wonder, how can breathing bad air hurt your heart? When you breathe in these tiny bits of dirt, they can go deep into your lungs. From there, they can get into your bloodstream.
Once they are in your bloodstream, they can travel to your heart and cause problems. This is especially harmful if you already have heart issues or if you are older.
The study looked at problems like stroke (when blood can’t get to your brain) and heart diseases (when blood can’t get to parts of your heart).
They found that every year, more people were having these problems because of the dirty air they breathed.
In 2019, 3.5 million people had heart problems because of dirty air. In 1990, that number was 2.6 million.
So, in just about 30 years, almost a million more people had heart issues because of bad air. Men had a 43% rise in these problems, while women had a 28% rise.
In places where people have less money, more people died or lived in pain because of these problems. But when the study considered the age of people, they found something good.
Fewer people died from these heart problems over the 30 years of the study. This means that treatments got better, or the air in some places got cleaner.
But while fewer people died, more people had to live with the pain and troubles of these heart problems.
The study also looked at where the bad air was coming from. Outdoor dirty air made heart problems rise by 8%. But indoor dirty air, like from cooking or heating with wood or coal, caused a big drop in heart problems.
This means that people are finding better ways to cook and heat their homes, which is making the air cleaner inside.
But here’s the thing: the number of heart problems from outside air is growing. This shows that while our homes might be getting cleaner, the outside world is still very dirty.
A Closer Look at the Study
This study was huge. It looked at data from 204 countries. They got information from many places, like satellites in the sky and machines on the ground.
They wanted to understand how the bad air is hurting hearts all around the world.
But, like all studies, this one had some weak spots. They guessed how much dirty air people breathed based on where they lived.
This might not be 100% accurate. Also, this study looked only at heart problems. Bad air can cause many other health problems too.
Dirty air is a big problem. It’s hurting our hearts, and while fewer people are dying, more people live with pain because of it.
We need to find ways to make the air cleaner. Until then, it’s a good idea to know how to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the silent threat of air pollution.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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