Pollution and Exercise

Exercise and air pollution - as we will show below, the two do not go together.  I live in a large, urban area that has an almost continual brown smog cloud that overhangs the city.  I have for decades marvelled that people will go jogging and biking in the middle of such severe pollution.  In fact, I often see people jogging right down a major street with their mouths and lungs positioned almost literally over hundreds of exhaust pipes.

Of course, the tragedy is that most of these people feel they are improving their health.  After all, exercise is always good as long as we don't overtrain, right? 

The truth is that there is ever-increasing evidence that joggers and bikers such as these are actually damaging their health.  It started in the 90's with studies that showed a variety of nasty conditions associated with long term exposure to air pollution.  For example, researchers examined a group of non-smoking Seventh Day Adventists and found an increased risk for asthma, airway obstructive disease and chronic cough. [1]  Why?  Several studies have since shown that the particulate matter in air pollution leads to inflammation in the lining of the lungs [2] and  previous research had shown that the lining of the lungs thickened from abnormal cell division, almost a "scar tissue" reaction if you will. [3]

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In the meantime, multiple studies on animals followed showing that air pollution could lead to heart disease and bone marrow issues.  Human studies verifed what researchers already suspected and one summary study summarized it best by stating that particulate matter leads to an augmented risk of "increased heart rate, decreased heart rate variability and increased cardiac arrhythmias" and even "sudden cardiac death." [4]

NOTE:  One recent 2010 study found that living in air pollution that meets federal guidelines damages the delicate microvessels, i.e. mini-capillaries, throughout our bodies.  Scientists found this by examing the tiny retinal vessels in the back of the eye. [9]  One can only imagine what this does if you're jogging or biking outside and sucking in pollutants and irritants like a car wash vacuum.

And that leads to the next big question, "Does exercising in air pollution do even further damage?"  A variety of research, including a 2008 study showed that exercising in high air pollution lead to decreased exercise performance among healthy, college-age bikers for as long as three days after exposure! [5]  Researchers believe that most of the damage comes from ozone, although heightened lead exposure is possible as well. [6]  Pain, shortness of breath, airway resistance and many other negative attributes are associated with ozone levels as small as 0.24 ppm. [7]  Furthermore, ozone had already been associated with increased cardiovascular mortality in polluted areas of the country. [8] Another study showed that jogging along a streeth was the equivalent to smoking in terms of the nasty toxins found in their bloodstream.  Imagine the damage done by an athlete sucking in exhaust fumes in a toxic cloud of smog in a major urban error for an extended period of time.

Air Pollution Solutions

1) Go Indoors. Okay, so it's bad enough that you live in the city much less exercise in it, right?  And, even worse, we know that anything that leads to heart disease may also lead to (or exacerbate) erectile dysfunction.  After all, you cannot have strong erections with damaged endotheliums full of plaque.  So, it may be prudent to think about joining a gym or even driving to a less polluted location instead.

2) Ornamental Plants. Probably the safest option is to exercise at home and buy a bunch of ornamental plants. (Many gyms use nasty cleaning solutions on their equipment packed with VOCs.) Yes, it may be time to get a green thumb as one study showed that various ornamental plants dramatically reduce indoor air toxins. [10] The authors suggested that a wide variety of plants be used, because each plant extracted and "quarantined" a different set of air contaminants. [11]  For a specific list of plants, see the references.

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