Latest news with #DougBrugge
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
HEPA air purifiers can help lower blood pressure, study finds
People whose homes are near busy highways may be able to reduce their blood pressure by running an air purifier with a HEPA filter, a study found. Just a month of air filter use cut systolic blood pressure by nearly 3 points in healthy adults who had slightly elevated blood pressure, according to the report published Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Doug Brugge, the study's lead author and professor and chair of the department of public health sciences at UConn Health in Farmington, acknowledged that 3 points may sound like a small reduction. 'But the medical literature shows that even at that magnitude there can be a meaningful benefit in terms of reducing the risk of serious cardiovascular outcomes, such as heart attack and stroke,' he said. Nearly a quarter of Americans live near busy roadways, according to the new research. People may not realize they're being exposed to traffic-related air pollution because it's invisible, odorless and can be easily missed, Brugge said. Yet high levels of the tiniest particles found in traffic-related air pollution are known risk factors for developing high blood pressure and heart disease. Blood pressure is measured with two numbers: systolic pressure (the top number) and diastolic pressure (the bottom number). A reading of less than 120/80 mm Hg is considered normal. Almost half, or about 119.9 million, of adults in the U.S. have hypertension, or high blood pressure, according to 2023 estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To determine whether simply installing two portable, commercially available air purifiers with HEPA filters could improve heart health, Brugge and his colleagues sought healthy volunteers whose homes were near roadways that would expose them to elevated levels of the tiny particles from vehicle emissions, as well as particles associated with tires and brakes. The researchers randomly assigned 154 volunteers to two groups. One would have two HEPA filters in the most commonly used rooms in their homes — one in the living room and the other in the bedroom. The other would be given sham filters. Then the groups would be switched. After a month of living with HEPA filters, volunteers who had slightly elevated blood pressure at the beginning of the study saw a 2.8-point drop in systolic blood pressure, the top number that the American Heart Association considers the strongest predictor of future heart problems. In contrast, those living with the sham filters saw a 0.2-point drop. People with normal blood pressure did not see an effect from HEPA use. The type of air filters used in the study were comparable to ones consumers can easily purchase in a store or online, Brugge said. The new study is 'intriguing,' said Dr. Matthew Alexander, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiovascular medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Not everyone's blood pressure changed, just those with systolic pressures over 120 at the outset, Alexander said. 'It was a modest effect, but a clinically significant one,' he added. 'And it would correspond to about a 6% reduction in the risk of adverse cardiac events, such as heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular death.' Alexander would like to see more studies, ones with more participants and a wider range of blood pressures. As would Steven Chillrud, a pollution expert and a research professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. It's likely that filtering would help even people who don't live near roadways since traffic isn't the only source of air pollution, Chillrud said. This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
NBC News
06-08-2025
- Health
- NBC News
HEPA air purifiers can help lower blood pressure, study finds
People whose homes are near busy highways may be able to reduce their blood pressure by running an air purifier with a HEPA filter, a study found. Just a month of air filter use cut systolic blood pressure by nearly 3 points in healthy adults who had slightly elevated blood pressure, according to the report published Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Doug Brugge, the study's lead author and professor and chair of the department of public health sciences at UConn Health in Farmington, acknowledged that 3 points may sound like a small reduction. 'But the medical literature shows that even at that magnitude there can be a meaningful benefit in terms of reducing the risk of serious cardiovascular outcomes, such as heart attack and stroke,' he said. Nearly a quarter of Americans live near busy roadways, according to the new research. People may not realize they're being exposed to traffic-related air pollution because it's invisible, odorless and can be easily missed, Brugge said. Yet high levels of the tiniest particles found in traffic-related air pollution are known risk factors for developing high blood pressure and heart disease. Blood pressure is measured with two numbers: systolic pressure (the top number) and diastolic pressure (the bottom number). A reading of less than 120/80 mm Hg is considered normal. Almost half, or about 119.9 million, of adults in the U.S. have hypertension, or high blood pressure, according to 2023 estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To determine whether simply installing two portable, commercially available air purifiers with HEPA filters could improve heart health, Brugge and his colleagues sought healthy volunteers whose homes were near roadways that would expose them to elevated levels of the tiny particles from vehicle emissions, as well as particles associated with tires and brakes. The researchers randomly assigned 154 volunteers to two groups. One would have two HEPA filters in the most commonly used rooms in their homes — one in the living room and the other in the bedroom. The other would be given sham filters. Then the groups would be switched. After a month of living with HEPA filters, volunteers who had slightly elevated blood pressure at the beginning of the study saw a 2.8-point drop in systolic blood pressure, the top number that the American Heart Association considers the strongest predictor of future heart problems. In contrast, those living with the sham filters saw a 0.2-point drop. People with normal blood pressure did not see an effect from HEPA use. The type of air filters used in the study were comparable to ones consumers can easily purchase in a store or online, Brugge said. The new study is 'intriguing,' said Dr. Matthew Alexander, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiovascular medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Not everyone's blood pressure changed, just those with systolic pressures over 120 at the outset, Alexander said. 'It was a modest effect, but a clinically significant one,' he added. 'And it would correspond to about a 6% reduction in the risk of adverse cardiac events, such as heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular death.' Alexander would like to see more studies, ones with more participants and a wider range of blood pressures. As would Steven Chillrud, a pollution expert and a research professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. It's likely that filtering would help even people who don't live near roadways since traffic isn't the only source of air pollution, Chillrud said.
Reuters
03-06-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Canadian wildfire smoke spreads into US Midwest
DULUTH, Minnesota, June 3 (Reuters) - Smoke from wildfires burning in three Canadian provinces is spreading into the U.S. Upper Midwest, stirring memories of the severe pollution that drifted south from Canada two years ago during that country's worst fire season on record. The particulate matter pollution caused by the smoke is already drifting into Minnesota and neighboring states. It is expected to make its way to New York and other East Coast cities in coming days, posing a health risk to the tens of millions who live in those regions. "Airborne particulate matter is the most serious environmental health risk we know of," said Doug Brugge, a public health researcher at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. "It causes cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological harm, and these plumes of smoke are at very high levels compared to what we're usually exposed to in the U.S." Scores of wildfires have swept across Canada since the start of May, forcing thousands of evacuations and disrupting crude oil production in the country. There were more than 200 active fires as of Monday, 106 of which were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. So far, 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) have burned, mostly in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Still, the current crisis does not yet come close to rivaling 2023, when 17 million hectares burned. One of the worst spots in the U.S. for air quality on Tuesday morning as a result of the fires was Ely, Minnesota, near the Manitoba border. It registered a "hazardous" air quality index reading of 336, according to IQAir, a website that monitors air quality around the world. An air quality rating of below 50 is considered to be "good," and readings between 100 and 300 are deemed "unhealthy" to "very unhealthy," while higher than that is considered "hazardous," according to the website. In Duluth, Minnesota, the rating stood at 309 at midmorning Tuesday, while in Flin Flon, Manitoba, about 800 miles (1,300 km) to the north and in one of the areas where the Canadian wildfires are concentrated, the AQI was at 359. In IQAir's list of the world's major cities, Minneapolis ranked as second worst air quality, with a 210 reading, trailing only Kuwait City, which led the list with a 318 reading. Children, the elderly and people with chronic cardiac, respiratory and other illnesses are most vulnerable to the effects of the smoke, especially those with cardiovascular problems, according to Brugge. "The risk of hospitalization and death is low in people who are healthy and at a young age," he said, adding that there is still evidence that air pollution exposure increases blood pressure and inflammation for those people. Experts have said that particulates from wildfire smoke enter most buildings in high concentrations, although the problem is greater in older structures. The concentration of wildfire pollutants indoors is on average about half of what it is outdoors, but if a building is not well sealed, the concentration may be up to 70% of what it is outside, experts have said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advises that during wildfire smoke events, people avoid indoor activities that put more fine particles into the air, such as smoking cigarettes, frying or broiling food, burning candles or incense, and vacuuming without a HEPA filter. Exposure to wildfire smoke may also increase lung cancer patients' risk of dying from their disease, particularly among non-smokers, although the effect may be mitigated by certain cancer treatments, according to a large California study presented last month. Nonetheless, some farmers believe the effects of the fires are not all negative. In online forums like Facebook, some farmers have said some of their best yields ever came from years with a heavy pall of wildfire smoke from Canada. The smoke can protect vulnerable crops from scorching sunlight, they think.
