Air pollution raises our risk of a stroke and its later complications

Murugesu is a journalist by the name of jason arunn.

The risk of a stroke can be raised by living in a polluted area.

Air pollution has been linked to strokes before, however, Hualiang Lin and his colleagues wanted to understand the risk among people with no history of stroke. They wanted to know how air pollution might affect cardiovascular disease after a stroke.

More than 300,000 people in the UK are exposed to air pollution. Air pollution monitoring took place within 100m2 of the participants' homes.

The participants were 40 to 69 years old at the beginning of the research. They did not have a history of a stroke or mini-stroke, which is a temporary disruption to the brain's blood supply.

Over the course of a 12-year follow-up period, over 6000 people had a stroke, over 2000 had cardiovascular disease and over 1000 died from any cause.

The increase in fine particulate matter was linked to a 24 per cent increase in stroke risk after accounting for other factors.

PM25 is mostly released by exhaust pipes.

According to the World Health Organization, our annual PM 2.5 exposure should not go past 5g/m3. The participants who had a stroke had an average annual PM 2.5 exposure of 10.03g/m3 compared with 9.97g/m3 for those who didn't have a stroke.

The risk of stroke could be increased by exposure to PM 2.5. He says that it can cause more diseases because it is more easy to inhale.

Efforts to reduce exposure may be most beneficial to primary stroke prevention.

Every 5g/m3 increase to their annual nitrogen dioxide exposure was associated with a 4% increase in their risk of cardiovascular disease after a stroke. This was not a chance finding, according to the analysis. Burning fuel releases nitrogen dioxide.

Exposure to nitrogen dioxide and PM 2.5 did not increase the chance of a stroke or cardiovascular disease.

"This study elegantly confirms the increased risk of stroke due to air pollution in the UK biobank population study, but interestingly suggests that the impact of air pollution may continue to adversely impact cardiovascular health even after the stroke occurred."

It is possible for stroke patients to consider personal measures to reduce exposure to air pollution, such as avoiding walking along polluted streets and taking a less polluted route.

There is a journal reference to neurology.