Major study in The Lancet about global burden of disease and diet. Low intake of certain nutrients seems associated with greater impact than the high intake of deprecated foods. Diets low in whole grains (<125 g/day) are associated with the greatest loss of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY), across the world, but really in every region. Low Read More
Tag: cardiovascular disease
Air pollution and HDL cholesterol
Exposure to black carbon and PM2.5 was found to be associated with lower measures of desirable HDL cholesterol in a paper based on the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) cohort. As a part of the MESA Air study led by the University of Washington, investigators examined the association of PM2.5 and black carbon exposures with Read More
Coarse PM and heart structure alterations
Exposure to coarse particles (PM10-2.5) was associated with right-ventricular effects in the heart of susceptible participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Right-ventricular dysfunction (and enlargement) is a common sequela of chronic respiratory disease. This analysis was based on 5-year exposures calculated through land-use regression models, and magnetic resonance images from 1,490 adult participants. An Read More
Metabolic syndrome and susceptibility to air pollution
Metabolic syndrome increased susceptibility to the cardiovascular effects of exposure to PM2.5 in rodents, in a recent toxicological study. Metabolic syndrome was induced in a group or rats through a high-fructose diet, while control animals were maintained on a normal diet. Both groups were exposed to primary traffic PM2.5 and to photochemically-aged secondary organic aerosol, Read More
Stress and cardiovascular disease
Stress and heart disease have shown an objective link through biomarkers in a new study in the American Journal of Cardiology supported by the MESA Air project. Researchers at UCLA and the University of Washington examined the association between urinary biomarkers of stress (catecholamines and cortisol) and coronary artery calcium (CAC), a validated measure of Read More
Air pollution, oxidative stress, and CVD
Oxidative stress was found to be associated with short-term exposure to air pollution in a community study reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Although the association has been reported in limited controlled exposure studies, researchers at the Harvard Clean Air Research Center (83479801) observed that exposure to PM2.5, Black carbon (BC), and Read More
Noise, air pollution, and cardiometabolic disease
A 2-part review on the association between noise and air pollution and cardio-metabolic disease (part 1, part 2) has been published in the European Heart Journal. The first part of the review focuses on the epidemiological evidence linking noise and air pollution with cardiovascular and metabolic disease. In particular, the evidence for interaction between these Read More
Temperatures at home and risk of cardiac arrhythmia
High or low temperatures at home were associated with higher risk of heart arrhythmia in elderly men, in a recent study from the Harvard Air Climate & Energy Center. Researchers analyzed electrocardiograms from 2000 to 2010 for 701 men from the Normative Aging cohort around Boston. Temperature at individual residences was obtained from satellite measurements Read More
Long-term exposure to air pollution was linked to faster progression of atherosclerosis
Long-term exposure to air pollution was linked to faster progression of atherosclerosis in a new major epidemiological study. In an article appearing on The Lancet on May 24 2016, researchers led by Joel Kaufmann at the University of Washington report the result of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution, involving more than 6,000 Read More