A recent study found that people suffering from obstructive breathing during sleep are vulnerable to raising their condition as they live in areas where air pollution levels rise. An extensive international research presented at the European Respiratory Association Conference, which began in the Netherlands on Saturday and continued until Wednesday, said that long -term exposure to fine particles in the air was linked to an increase in the number of breaths or its weakness during sleep hours, a threat to public health in the view of this disorder and the connection with heart disease. Opinion apnea during sleep is one of the cases that can go without diagnosis for years, as many of the injured do not notice that their extreme snoring or waking up regularly is related to a health problem that can lead to serious consequences. The symptoms of the condition are manifested in regular breathing, low oxygen levels in the blood, and the resulting chronic fatigue and excessive drowsiness during the day. Although obesity and aging are one of the most prominent factors that increase the possibility of injuries, the new research emphasizes another less clear but impressive factor; It is air pollution. The researchers said that previous studies that treated the relationship between pollution and the breathing were limited to the geographical magnitude and often with different results. The researchers used a large European database that included more than 19,000 patients in 25 cities following 14 countries, giving the research a greater statistical strength and the ability to compare different environments. The researchers relied on a methodology that combined patient data associated with their ages, weights and smoking habits, and the results of sleep studies measuring sleep quality, the number of breathing attacks and low oxygen in the blood, and then combined these data with the records of fine particles in the air that withdraw from the European “Copernicus” service. These particles, which do not exceed 10 micrometers, are mainly of car outlet and industrial activities and are one of the most dangerous components of pollution on human health. The statistical analysis showed a positive relationship between the high concentration of fine particles and the severity of the condition. This is the scale used for the number of attacks or breathing weakness per hour. “This number looks small on an individual level, but it is on a wide population that can mean a large number of people with light to more degrees, increasing the healthy burden on medical associations and systems,” says Martino Pingo, a researcher at the University of Milan-Picoka, and the Oxylojico Ethaleano Institute in Italy. When the researchers were compared to European cities, it appeared that the strength of the relationship between pollution and the severity of the apnea was not equal everywhere. This contrast opens the door for new research questions related to the role of local climate, pollution patterns and different healthcare methods to explain these differences. The researchers expressed their desire to delve into the future to see if some individuals are more likely to be influenced by pollution than others, and whether their levels of pollution should be reduced, can actually be reflected in improving the symptoms of patients. 10 Facts You may not know about air pollution 9 out of 10 people around the world breathe polluted air that exceeds the recommended limits of the World Health Organization. Air pollution leads to about 7 million people annually due to heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic lung diseases. About 3.8 million deaths due to domestic air pollution caused by cooking with infected fuel, and 4.2 million deaths due to air pollution. More than 3 billion people, most of whom are women and children, still depend on polluted stoves and fuel in their homes. 90 % of deaths associated with air pollution occur in countries with low and medium income, especially in Asia and Africa. Air pollution accounts for 24% of heart disease deaths, 25% of strokes, 43% of the deaths of chronic obstructive pneumonia and 29% of lung cancer deaths. The Database of the World Health Organization for surrounding air pollution has become more than 4300 cities in 108 countries, making it the largest in the world. Air pollution levels in some major cities exceed five times the world health organization. The most important sources of air pollution: the ineffective use of energy in homes, industry, agriculture, transport, coal stations, in addition to sand, dust, waste and the removal of forests. The highest levels of air pollution were recorded in the Eastern Mediterranean region and Southeast Asia, while Europe and the Americas have relatively lower levels. Benjo emphasized that these results emphasize how environmental factors can affect the well -known traditional factors to increase the risk of apnea, such as age and weight. He added: “Our awareness of this overlap should lead to a broader approach in the treatment of patients, as the intervention is not limited to weight loss or the use of respiratory assistant at night, but also includes improving the air quality that people inhale daily.” Pingo explained that the cumulative effect of pollution may not occur at a short moment, but that over time it becomes sufficient to change the course of the disease and its intensity. The head of the group of sleep disorders during the European respiratory association, Sofia Shiza, said the study indicates that pollution is not only a general environmental issue, but also a direct health issue. She pointed out that patients with self -assets living in infected cities face double dangers, as pollution increases the severity of their symptoms and makes it more vulnerable to chronic complications “and integrating an environmental health perspective into the field of sleep medicine is a qualitative shift to understand the nature of these deviations.” The researchers pointed out that, in the light of the constant increase in the rate of urbanization and heavy traffic in the major cities, it becomes difficult to avoid exposure to pollution, but that direct exposure to pollution to chronic sleep disorders adds another reason to reconsider traffic and industrial policies, as pollution is no longer linked to lung diseases, but also the quality of sleep. Although the study focused on the fine particles of one category, there are questions or other pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide or smaller particles may have more serious consequences for patients with self -interruptions. The researchers have called on scientists from other scientific teams to expand the extent of future research to include various types of pollutants, and the results open the door to think about preventative strategies such as improving home ventilation, raising green spaces in cities and encouraging sustainable transport. The effect of pollution is not limited to self -destruction patients, as previous studies have been shown carefully between pollution and sleep disorders in general, including insomnia and sleep. The importance of this study is that it focuses on a satisfactory category that is originally vulnerable to heart and brain complications, which risk any aggravation in its condition. Although the statistical relationship discovered is relatively modest, researchers insist that looking at the level of public health reveal their actual dimensions, considering that a slight increase in the millions of population can mean an extra burden on health systems, an increase in early mortality rates and an increase in care costs. “Therefore, these results are not a small detail, but rather a warning to the need to link policy on pollution control to plans to combat chronic diseases.”
A new danger to air pollution .. increases the intensity of sleep apnea
