Air pollution causes heart problems, says a new study on Beijing smog effects

Heart health and air pollution may be linked, says a new study.

A study of Beijing residents before and after the Olympics shows that a dip in pollution during the games immediately improved cardiovascular health.

The research looked at 125 healthy male and female doctors at a Beijing hospital during and after the Olympics, said Medical News Today.

During the Olympics there were significant reductions in soluble CD62P levels, factors that cause blood clotting.

Those levels increased after the Olympics, along with blood pressure.

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"We believe this is the first major study to clearly demonstrate that changes in air pollution exposure affect cardiovascular disease mechanisms in healthy, young people,” said Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, a professor at the USC medical school, reported Red Orbit.

During the Olympics, the Chinese government undertook a massive effort to suppress air pollution, which plagues the bustling capital.

Factories were temporarily closed and cars were forced off the road.

The look at Beijingers before and after the Olympics helped to solve the problem with earlier studies, which could not directly link pollution levels to heart health, reported Time.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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