The pollution is ruining the efforts of the londoners to stay in shape

Hochmann/epictura

Published the 06.12.2017 at 15h23

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pollution airexercice physical

You are returned to the sport to improve the health of your cardiovascular system ? Good idea, except if you live in a polluted city. A study, published in the journal The Lancet, shows that the pollution of the air inspired during exercise negates the positive effects of physical exercise on the health of your heart and lungs in particular after age 60.

Sports and pollution, a problem

The researchers studied the cases of 119 volunteers londoners aged 60 and over. There were three types of people : people in good health, individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in stable state and persons suffering from coronary artery disease in stable state.
They were then divided into two groups, one walked two hours in the middle of the day in Hyde Park, a large park in london. The other walked on Oxford Street, a busy street of the british capital.

Levels of air pollution are too high

The levels of air quality and noise have been recorded as well as physical measurements to analyze the beneficial effect of the walk on people. Those who have strolled in green space have improved their lung capacity during the first hour, and these positive effects have often lasted more than 24 hours.
Conversely, for those who walked on Oxford Street, the positive effects were much lower in comparison.
On this busy street and perpetually bottled, they have inhaled fine particulate matter, and carbon and nitrogen dioxide.

The net effect of the pollution

For the authors of the study, these effects could be observed also in individuals of other age classes. According to them, these results show the importance of tightening the standards in terms of air quality. “We cannot tolerate the levels of air quality that we find today in our streets overloaded,” said Professor Chung, lead author of the research. For these scientists, the urgency is also to the multiplication of green spaces, or at least the improvement of their conditions of access for city dwellers.

It had already been shown to be jogging in atmosphere polluted was bad for the health, sports and mobilizes large quantities of polluted air in the course of physical exercise. In this study, even the market environment is polluted is bad for people with COPD or coronary artery disease, and it’s a safe bet that it is not good for the other.