Environmental Factors affecting Heart Health

The cardiovascular system is highly vulnerable to environmental impurities. These infections can easily develop severe heart diseases. Basic harmful elements like — lead, cadmium, or ambient pollution get dissolved in the air, and such situations are almost impossible to escape. We must therefore identify and prevent ourselves from getting in contact with such factors.

First discussed are some of the most obvious factors that affect heart health.

Pollution as a Factor Affecting the Heart Health

Pollution is considered as one of the leading causes of CVDs. It can directly affect your body. Now, every type of pollution has a hand in causing CVDs. Here we will analyze how does pollution can exactly harm our heart health.

• Air Pollution:Air pollution carries various harmful gases and dirt which when inhaled, travels to the heart through blood, and clogs the walls and arteries of the heart. This may lead to stroke or heart attack.
• Noise Pollution: Noise pollution might not seem to be a contributor to CVDs but actually, it affects the heart quite directly. As the studies show, for every 10 decibels of noise on road traffic — the risk for amplifying ischemic heart diseases increases by a factor of 1.08.
• Water Pollution: Water pollution affects heart health in such a way that when one intakes impure water, it travels throughout the internal system. This process delivers all the impurities to the heart through blood, which again starts building up plague in the cavities of the heart.

These are some of the major ways through which pollution affects heart health. Further discussed are more factors causing heart diseases.

Climate Changes Affect Heart Health

Although being quite unvalued, climate changes also add to the factors that cause CVDs.

Here scrutinized are some of the ways through which climate changes affect heart health.

• Where do you live? The climate of your residential area has a significant effect on your cardiovascular health. The temperature of your home affects your body depending on your tolerance level. Generally, people living in hot temperatures are more prone to CVDs.

• Affecting POC More Than the Rest: People of Colour are more affected by climate changes. The reason is biological. People of color disproportionately suffer more from excessive heat (and the health consequences because of the same). Aboriginal people, followed by the Black Community, are most affected by CVDs caused by climate change.

• The Pandemic: The COVID-19 pandemic has immensely hurt the climate. This deadly virus is so widespread around the globe that no matter how much we prevent ourselves and the environment from getting in contact with anything harmful — the environment is never going to be the same as it was before this pandemic. Regardless of how many precautions we took, everyone was once in contact with this virus (whether whatever level it was), and this lead to loss of immunity — eventually resulting in CVDs. Also, the emotional stress that we have to put up with, on regular basis, due to this widespread is having a harsh effect on our hearts.

The above-explained were some of the reasons why climate change affects cardiovascular health. There is a lot more than just climate change and an impure environment that contributes to heart diseases. Now we will discuss the prevention from these factors.

Prevention from the Harsh Environments and CVDs related to it

Although the harmful environment is inevitable, and there is no living being that is not affected by climate change; there are still some basic steps that we must take to safeguard ourselves from the polluted environment.

Some of the most basic ways to protect your heart from environmental challenges are suggested below:

• De-stress Yourself: Yes! This is one of the most essential ways to avoid CVDs. You need to de-stress over every minor hurdle. It isn’t possible to wipe stress away just like that! Stress is an emotion, and there is no way to stop our sentiments from existing. But it is very much possible to control those emotions and identify which ones are good or bad for our cardiovascular health.
• Check Your Environment: If you are deciding to shift somewhere, or are staying at a place where the environmental conditions are not so suitable for you to reside in; try to move away to a milder place or arrange some amenities that make your living space healthier.
• Ensure that Your Workplace is Comfortable: People are most prone to harsh environments at their workplace. Field workers get the worst of it as they have to work all day long in extreme weather conditions. That is why you need to ensure whether your workplace and environment are suitable for you.
• Basic Precautions: Take basic precautions like regular hygiene and cleanliness that can help you prevent impurities around your surroundings, intake a nutritious diet, and more of so.

Bottom-Line

We are now familiar with the common ways to prevent CVDs through some lifestyle changes.

In conclusion, we need to understand that environmental changes are inescapable and the best we can do is try to safeguard ourselves from such conditions or factors.

There is no way to stop or change the way the environment works but what we can do is change the way we work.
Right?

We at Corrielus Cardiology are ever-present to provide you with healthcare solutions for your daily life. We ensure to help you build a better and healthier lifestyle so that you can live a happier, stress-free life. Thus, schedule an appointment, today.