Why Smog Should Not Be Your Excuse to Skip Workouts

Even if the air quality in your community isn’t the best, it’s still better to get out and be active than hide indoors behind filters. Doctors have, for a very long time, recommended regular exercise as one of the best things anyone can do to maintain good health. In fact, doctors continue to promote exercise even now, as the way to ensure you stay medically well.

But air pollution is linked to a higher risk for cardiovascular and respiratory problems, including serious issues such as asthma and even heart attacks. New research looked at patients with a history of serious cardiovascular incidents compared to the quality of the air where they lived. More than fifty thousand people were tracked in the study. Those who lived with poor air quality were fifteen percent more likely to experience cardiovascular problems; and those who already had a history of cardiovascular problems were nearly forty percent more likely to have an incident in those same areas of air pollution.

Exercise, however, was a key factor in preventing such incidents. Even in areas of high air pollution, those who regularly exercised were more than twenty percent less likely to have heart problems. And it didn’t take much; thirty minutes to four hours of physical activity on a weekly basis showed a significant reduction in heart risk.