Read more...

Air pollution triggers more heart attacks than using cocaine and poses as high a risk of sparking a heart attack as alcohol, coffee and physical exertion, scientists say.

Sex, anger, marijuana use and chest or respiratory infections and can also trigger heart attacks to different extents, the researchers said, but air pollution, particularly in heavy traffic, is the major culprit.

The findings, published in The Lancet journal, suggest population-wide factors like polluted air should be taken more seriously when looking at heart risks, and should be put into context beside higher but relatively rarer risks like drug use.

Tim Nawrot of Hasselt University in Belgium, who led the study, said he hoped his findings would also encourage doctors to think more often about population level risks.

“Physicians are always looking at individual patients — and low risk factors might not look important at an individual level, but if they are prevalent in the population then they have a greater public health relevance,” he said in a telephone interview.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes air pollution as “a major environmental risk to health” and estimates that it causes around 2 million premature deaths worldwide every year.

Nawrot’s team combined data from 36 separate studies and calculated the relative risk posed by a series of heart attack triggers and their population-attributable fraction (PAF) — in other words the proportion of total heart attacks estimated to have been caused by each trigger.

The highest risk PAF was exposure to traffic, followed by physical exertion, alcohol, coffee, air pollution, and then things like anger, sex, cocaine use, smoking marijuana and respiratory infections.

“Of the triggers for heart attack studied, cocaine is the most likely to trigger an event in an individual, but traffic has the greatest population effect as more people are exposed to it,” the researchers wrote.

While passive smoking was not included in this study, Nawrot said the effects of second-hand smoke were likely to be similar to that of outdoor air pollution, and noted previous research which found that bans on smoking in public places have significantly reduced heart attack rates.

Tim Chico, a heart specialist at the University of Sheffield who was not involved in this research, said it would help health authorities focus on which are the most important triggers.

“However, what triggers the heart attack should be considered the 'last straw'.

“The foundations of heart disease that lead to a heart attack are laid down over many years,” he said.

“If someone wants to avoid a heart attack they should focus on not smoking, exercising, eating a healthy diet and maintaining their ideal weight.” 

Comments

• Sign in or sign up to comment

Sun May 26 11:28:32 SAST 2013 ::

Feb 24, 2011

Tigeress

SEX aowa they are reffering to old men sleeping with sexy us ull get an attach for sure
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

Memme

hee banna.
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

Uhuu

Bathong... A e hle!!
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

TheMagic

Eish, sex !! so much about it - one day it is very therapetic and the other day it causes heart attack -
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

AK1234

Eee..Aowa jwalo gona SEX e batlang mo dilong tsa heartattack?? Haeba e jwalo then we are all dead phela nna never ke lese sex ka baka la hear attack i rather die but chowing eat. I am sick & tired of this doctors phela it seems as if everything is killing this days since le nama e bolaya next time ba tlore morogo just wait & see.
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

Tigeress

i thinks these findings should be done ko University of Venda,Limpopo, Unisa im telling you the opposite will be found i dont trust these findings rom white communities....bsides white ppl are weak yesterday we were reading about someone black with 39 wives so according to this white finding the person should be dead my Black ppl do not worry
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

OMG-girl

But can you imagine being on top of someone, enoying the sex, you think he's enoying the sex meanwhile yena they're having a heart attack ngaphansi kwakho!!! LMAO man! Insane! First they sex is good for you; know it could cause you to have a heart attack! Bathong.
@Tigress totally agree sisi, these white researchers must be referring to their white communities. Here in Africa, a black man can keep it going without breaking a sweat... lol!
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

teduetee

if sex cause the heart attack then atleast am safe for now,as i hardly have it
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

cork

For sex maybe when you reach a peak.

@ Tigeress what u think? hence sometimes u fail to breath.
Report Abuse

Feb 24, 2011

Catty88

@Tigeress yes he dies on top of you or while you on top of him.lol.Some even die by the sight of your naked body.lol.
Report Abuse

Read all 33 comments