Air Pollution Can Make You Fat
Posted October 13, 2011 in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
I often come across studies about the negative health impacts of air pollution. I recently learned about one such study that is particularly troubling.
A study published last year found that mice exposed to particulate matter 2.5—a kind of air pollution released by diesel engines, coal-fired power plants, and many other sources—had more abdominal fat and insulin resistance, even if they ate a normal diet. The mice exposed to air pollution had larger and more fat cells in their belly area and higher blood sugar levels than mice eating the same diet but breathing clean air. These negative impacts can increase the risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
We already know that air pollution, and in particular, the type of pollution in this study (tiny particulates that are 2.5 microns or smaller) increases the risk of having asthma, triggers asthma attacks, and increases cancer risks. Now we are learning that it is linked to obesity and diabetes too.
There is no doubt that a healthy diet and regular exercise is important to staying healthy. But it is maddening that folks living near industries, ports, railyards, truck routes, and highways emitting particulate matter 2.5 face an additional major hurdle to being healthy, just by breathing the air.
Read more about the study here and here.
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Comments
Shane — Oct 13 2011 03:12 PM
This is so disgusting and bothersome. Morgan, I wonder if the mice in the study were fat because the polluted air they were breathing stressed out their bodies, raising their insulin and cortisol (?) levels causing them to have an increase in belly fat. I'm sure breathing in polluted air is hard for the body to process and thus switched their brain into survival mode, which as we all know, can do crazy things to the body.
Barrett Meeker — Oct 13 2011 04:19 PM
From the day we arrive on the planet
And breath the smog, more and more
We need cars because we can't run
asthma attacks and more fat
There's far too much wrong in here
More to fix than can ever be fixed
But the smog rolling high
Through the dirty sky
Keeps cancer rates on the endless abound
It's the Circle of Strife
And it hurts us all
Through buying and greed
Through harvest and hording
Till we stop our consuming
On Earth as it's dying
In the Circle
The Circle of Strife