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Heart attack: traffic jams as triggers.(CR Health)
Motorists in the U.S. spend more than four times as many hours stuck in traffic as they did 20 years ago, according to the Department of Transportation. Not only does this try your patience, new research suggests it can also do serious harm to your heart.
In a study published last fall in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers in Germany analyzed the records of almost 700 men and women who experienced a heart attack. Heart attacks were roughly three times as likely to occur within an hour of sitting in heavy traffic, compared with other situations. Most of those who had heart attacks following traffic jams were driving their own cars, although some were caught in traffic while using public transportation.
It's not clear whether the heart attacks were triggered by air pollution or other factors, such as stress. But previous research has established both as important heart risks.
Living, working, or exercising in polluted air has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack in a number of studies. Pollution particles may trigger ischemia, a potentially catastrophic shortage of oxygen to the heart muscle. Carbon monoxide emitted from vehicles' exhaust pipes can displace oxygen in the blood, threatening the heart. A December 2004 study tied the specific type of pollution generated by stop-and-go-traffic--including emissions from braking and accelerating--to markers of cardiovascular distress in nine healthy, nonsmoking highway troopers in North Carolina.
A wealth of research has linked anger and other negative emotions to heightened heart-attack risk. These emotions can cause a surge in stress-related hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which prime the body to face an emergency. That surge causes physiological changes, such as elevated blood pressure, which can trigger a heart attack or stroke, especially in people whose arteries are already clogged.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Travel at off-peak times when you can. And take steps to protect your heart when you find yourself mired in gridlock. This includes minimizing your exposure to dangerous pollutants and learning to control the way in which you respond to stress behind the wheel. The following strategies can help:
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