Where is the most polluted air? How can living next to a busy road or in the middle of a big city affect our health? Can we monitor the air quality in our surroundings ourselves? And how to customize your activities? You will learn that and much more in the current episode podcast MUDr.ování.
Leave the city behind and go on vacation to the forest or mountains. It can be a healing stay for which not only your mind but also you will thank you lung. The data speak clearly – most of us live in unsatisfactory air with a higher concentration of airborne dust than recommended by the World Health Organization.
According to Vladimír Koblížek, the chairman of the Czech Pneumology and Phthisiology Society, even such an ordinary one-week or 14-day stay in the clean air can have a really positive effect.
“The absence of pollution will lead to the fact that the defense mechanisms – the function of the cilia and various goblet cells and what in the airways protects the entrance to the peripheral parts of the lungs – can regenerate a little. And then we will be better able to resist pollution in the city,” describes the lung doctor in the MUDr.ování podcast.
Who were we talking to?
Vladimír Koblížek is the chairman of the Pneumology and Phthisiology Society ČLS JEP and head of the lung clinic of the Hradec Králové University Hospital (FNHK). He also graduated from medical school in the same city. He first worked in the internal department of the Opočen hospital. He later joined the tuberculosis and respiratory diseases clinic of the FNHK.
In 2002, he became an assistant at the Department of Internal Studies. In the same year, he certified in the field of pneumophthizeology. In 2005, 2008 and 2009, he successively obtained a primary license in the field of pneumology, a license in sleep medicine and a license in interventional bronchoscopy. He also has experience from several foreign internships in Great Britain, Germany and the USA.
Photo: Daniela Přádová, Proženy.cz
The guest of the MUDr. was pulmonologist Vladimír KoblížekPhoto: Daniela PrádováProženy.cz
The invisible enemy
Why should we care about air quality? According to the expert, it fundamentally affects our health. “In addition to oxygen, a huge amount of harmful substances can also enter us through breathing,” he clarifies. The defense mechanisms of a healthy person can usually cope with them – but it is worse for weakened people or unborn children.
The concentration of airborne dust has decreased in our country over the past decades, but we are still above the currently recommended limits. “Flying dust includes a whole range of chemical substances that form particles capable of reaching the lower respiratory tract and directly into the blood,” explains Vladimír Koblížek, explaining why flying dust is problematic.
People can monitor air quality, for example, on the portal of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, which creates special maps. As a rule, people in big cities are exposed to more pollution. However, this does not mean that you cannot go for a run in Prague, for example, without any worries. We just need to think about when and where exactly we go – prefer wooded parks and avoid traffic.
Previous episodes of MD
“When it’s far from traffic, far from industry and the wind is blowing, there’s no smog situation, so jogging somewhere in the park is perfectly safe. If someone really wants to run every day and there is a smoggy situation or they have to run 2 km along a drop-off, it is not entirely healthy. There are even hypotheses that it is better to hang around a bit in dirty air than to be very active in it,” he adds.
Cancer and heart disease
Breathing polluted air is especially risky for chronically ill people, small children or, for example, pregnant women. Several studies conducted on a large number of women have confirmed their risks. For example, those who lived near a major road or in generally polluted air were more prone to premature birth or lower birth weight of newborns.
At the same time, scientists are talking about a connection with the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases or cancer. “Findings from three or four large studies that I’ve read show a greater risk of lung cancer, breast cancer, and then some cancers like leukemia or kidney cancer,” adds the doctor.
Tags: invisible enemy risk heart attacks cancer lurks air doctor warns
