MAY 2008 NEWS
Tree-lined streets may cut asthma risk
May 02, 2008 - MedWire News: Children who live on a tree-lined street have a lower risk for developing asthma than children living on treeless city streets, according to US researchers.
Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Gina Lovasi and colleagues from Columbia University in New York explain that “street trees were associated with a lower prevalence of early childhood asthma.”
They then used street tree count data provided by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to investigate the association between tree density and asthma prevalence and hospitalizations.
Tree density did not have any impact on asthma hospitalization rates.
Although the results are striking, the authors caution that their results do not permit an inference that trees are causally related to asthma at the individual level.
Lovasi and team conclude: “The PlaNYC sustainability initiative, which includes a commitment to plant one million trees by the year 2017, offers an opportunity for a large prospective evaluation.”
J Epidemiol Community Health 2008: Advance online publication
Increased Arterial Stiffness Common in COPD Patients
Researchers have noted excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in COPD patients is probably caused by increased arterial stiffness and elevated blood pressure that is present in Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The reasons why patients with COPD are at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to the general population "are not clear," Dr. Joy J. Miller, from Borders General Hospital and the University of Edinburgh, noted in comments to Reuters Health.
"This suggests that COPD is not simply a disease of the lungs but involves other systems including the heart and vasculature," Dr. Miller said.
Systemic inflammation is present in COPD patients causing upto three fold rise in serum C-reactive protein levels in compatision to control patients .
"The use of simple effective treatments to lower blood pressure has the potential to prevent excess heart attacks and strokes in COPD patients," she concluded.
Thorax 2008;63:306-311.
Beta Blockers Can Be Safely Used in Hospitalized COPD Patients
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 23 - Beta blockers can be safely used in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
"Beta blockers dramatically improve outcomes in those with or at risk for cardiovascular disease," Dr. Mark T. Dransfield, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told Reuters Health. "These data suggest that even during an acute exacerbation of COPD when lung function is most compromised the drugs are not associated with harm."
Preeclampsia Linked With Airway Hyperresponsiveness
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 23 - There appears to be a relationship between preeclampsia and an increase in airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), according to UK investigators, who believe their study to be the first report of such an association.
In the current study, the researchers measured AHR and atopy in 19 preeclamptic women and in 19 normotensive pregnancies (controls) 3 to 60 months postpartum. A methacholine challenge was used to measure AHR.
They conclude that AHR is increased in women who have had preeclampsia, an observation strengthened by the "important finding" that AHR was also increased in preeclamptic women with atopy but without asthma. This indicates that the "increase in AHR in the women with preeclampsia was not simply a consequence of the increased number of subjects with asthma in the group."
BJOG 2008;115:520-522.
Secondhand Smoke: Just 30 Minutes is enough.
A study published in American College of Cardiology reports that just 30 minutes in a smoky room can cause profound blood vessel injury in healthy young adults, greatly increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Secondhand smoke, also called environmental tobacco smoke, is no less harmful that smoking itself. Smoke exhaled by smoker contains almost all the harmful chemicals which he himself inhails. yhis includes nicotine which have been shown to increase one’s risk for cardiovascular disease.
Study was done by Christian Heiss, MD, currently affiliated with the University RWTH Aachen in Germany, and colleagues in California.
The researchers learned that in healthy nonsmokers, even brief exposure to secondhand smoke resulted in blood vessel dysfunction and interfered with the activity of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which are believed to play a key role in repairing blood vessels. The damage to the EPCs appeared to last as long as a day.
"Taken together, these findings provide further evidence that even a very short period of passive smoke exposure has strong, persistent vascular consequences," the scientists write in the journal article.
A decrease in the number and function of EPCs has been linked to cardiovascular risk factors, including chronic smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
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