New Study Suggests Air Pollution Puts Children at Greater Risk for High Blood Pressure

The American Heart Association (AHA) examined the findings of 14 different studies that looked into the effects of air pollution particles on more than 350,000 children from the US, China, Europe, between the ages of five and 12.

The AHA found that short-term and long-term exposure to common air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide could raise the blood pressure levels in children significantly. Professor Yao Lu, the study’s lead author, says that this link between air pollution and high blood pressure puts children at a greater risk for heart disease as adults.

They found that short-term exposure of less than 30 days to larger, coarse particles was enough to significantly raise systolic blood pressure – the pressure in your arteries during the contraction of your heart muscle. The same result was found for those children who were exposed to longer-term fine particles and nitrogen dioxide from traffic pollution.

Air pollution puts children as young as FIVE at greater risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, study warns

To learn more about high blood pressure and how to correct it, check out this article.