MADRID, 20 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
People who exercise regularly tend to have a lower risk of hypertension, even if they live in areas where air pollution is relatively high, according to new research published today in the journal ‘Circulation,’ edited by the American Heart Association. .
The risk-benefit ratio between air pollution and physical activity is a major public concern because more than 91 percent of people worldwide live in areas where air quality does not meet the guidelines of the World Organization for the Health (WHO).
“Prolonged outdoor activity in urban areas increases the intake of air pollutants, which can worsen the harmful health effects of air pollution. While we found that high physical activity combined with less exposure to pollution air was related to a lower risk of hypertension, physical activity continued to have a protective effect even when people were exposed to high levels of pollution. The message is that physical activity, even in polluted air, is an important prevention strategy of hypertension, “recalls Xiang Qian Lao, from the School of Public Health and Primary Care at the Jockey Club of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shatin.
The researchers studied more than 140,000 nonhypertensive adults in Taiwan and followed them up for an average of 5 years. The researchers classified each adult’s weekly levels of physical activity as inactive, moderately active, or highly active.
The researchers also classified the level of exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) as low, moderate, and high. PM2.5 is the most widely used indicator of air pollution. High blood pressure was defined as 140/90 mm Hg. The American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology 2017 Guide to the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults defines high blood pressure as 130/80 mm Hg.
In general, people who are highly active and exposed to low levels of contamination had a lower risk of developing hypertension. People inactive and exposed to highly polluted air were at increased risk of hypertension.
Each increase in the PM2.5 level was associated with a 38 percent increase in the risk of incident hypertension, while each increase in the level of physical activity led to a 6 percent lower risk of hypertension. This suggests that reducing air pollution is more effective in preventing hypertension.
The benefits of regular physical activity are maintained regardless of the level of contamination. People who did moderate exercise had a 4 percent lower risk of high blood pressure than those who did not. People who exercised at a high level had a 13 percent lower risk of high blood pressure than those who did not exercise.
“This is the largest study to analyze the combined effects of air pollution and regular physical activity on high blood pressure. Our findings indicate that regular physical activity is a safe approach for people living in relatively polluted regions to prevent high blood pressure Exercise should be promoted even in contaminated areas The findings also highlight how strong the impact of pollution can be on blood pressure and how important it is to control pollution levels to prevent hypertension “reflects Lao.
The researchers point out that the conclusions of this study are limited and cannot be generalized to other populations with greater exposure to air pollution because it only includes people living in Taiwan, where the ambient air is moderately polluted (the annual concentration of PM2, 5 was 2.6 times the limit recommended by the World Health Organization).
The researchers did not distinguish between outdoor physical activity and indoor physical activity, meaning that they could not exclusively examine the association of PM2.5 and hypertension in relation to outdoor or indoor physical activity. The researchers also included cigarette smoking indoors as a variable.
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