Intermountain Health researchers found that high air pollution levels, specifically fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, increases inflammation in people with heart disease.
Benjamin Horne, professor of research at Intermountain Health’s Heart Institute, said researchers looked at 115 biomarkers for inflammation in 44 individuals with heart disease and 35 people without the disease. A biomarker is a measure that captures what is happening in a cell or an organism at a given moment. Researchers collected the biomarker data from blood draws during days when exposure to air pollution was low and on days when it was high.
“We looked in people with heart failure, and there were three biomarkers substantially elevated on days when the air pollution was high.” said Horne.
He added that in the people who did not have heart disease, none of the 115 biomarkers were elevated on the high pollution days.
Their previous research has shown that the biomarkers of inflammation are elevated in people not only with heart disease but also with respiratory conditions such as asthma or COPD, and hospital visits increase for these Utahns during and shortly after pollution days.
“And so these inflammatory biomarkers go up and they stay up for a little while trying to get the body to readjust itself to the new reality of being exposed to air pollution,” said Horne.
The inflammation spikes can occur during winter inversions and also in the summer due to wildfire smoke. Horne said there are several strategies people with these conditions can use to stay healthy during these times. They include staying indoors during inversions and when wildfire smoke levels are elevated, and using a high efficiency particulate matter air filter.
