Air pollution significantly increases the risk of premature death for those with underlying cardiovascular disease because, when they inhale pollution, their heart rates speed up, causing a potentially deadly irregular heart rhythm. USF’s Thomas Taylor-Clark is studying why this altered physiological response occurs.
Taylor-Clark used a rat model for high blood pressure and simulated effects of inhaling air pollution. “The speeding up of heart rate and abnormal heartbeats (in the hypertensive rats) were due to the switching on of this ‘flight-or-fight’ nervous system not seen in the healthy animals exposed to noxious agents,” says Taylor-Clark.
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