Contents:
- Medical Video: Inhaling a heart attack: How air pollution can cause heart disease
- Can pollution affect stroke?
- How long does it take for pollution to cause a stroke?
- What types of strokes might be caused by air pollution?
Medical Video: Inhaling a heart attack: How air pollution can cause heart disease
We constantly interact with the environment around us. What happens to our body inside is inseparable from what is happening outside our bodies, because we constantly breathe the air around us, including any substances that happen to be present in the air. Air pollution and pollution have a big impact on our respiratory health.
In addition, harmful particles in the air we breathe can also contribute to increasing the risk of stroke.
Can pollution affect stroke?
Air pollution varies across the world both at the level of contamination and the type of pollutants. Researchers from various regions around the world have examined the effects of air pollution on strokes.
A recent scientific article published in the September 2014 edition of the Sao Paulo Medical Journal reported a link between stroke and air pollution in San Paulo, Brazil, a city considered to have low air pollution. The results showed that exposure to sulfur dioxide particles and air pollutants increased the risk of stroke deaths by 7% -10%. Likewise, an investigation conducted in Taipei, Taiwan, determined that exposure to high levels of fine particles correlated with an increase in the number of hemorrhagic stroke patients (bleeding).
Many research analyzes from various cities, populations and conditions show similar findings.
Exposure to air pollution causes an increase in the incidence of strokes ranging from small to moderate strokes. But this analysis did not show a direct relationship between exposure to airborne particulates and strokes, but still found an association between air particulate matter and atrial fibrillation and cardiac arrhythmias, which are also risk factors for stroke.
How long does it take for pollution to cause a stroke?
The analysis published in August 2014 in the International Journal of Cardiology, said that there was a short-term relationship between exposure to air pollution and the occurrence of strokes. The same study notes that air pollution only has a transient (short-term) effect on stroke risk, which might mean that air pollution does not always cause an increased risk of stroke, and the risk may not last long after exposure to air pollutants.
What types of strokes might be caused by air pollution?
An analysis conducted in London sought to differentiate the types of strokes associated with exposure to air pollution particles. This study determined that patients are more likely to have strokes if they are often exposed to air pollution, but strokes that occur tend to be mild strokes, not moderate or severe strokes.
