Common allergies heighten heart risk too--study

If you aren’t immune to common allergies

, you probably run a higher risk of contracting heart troubles, too, findings of a new study warn.

According to the findings of the latest study, common allergies like wheezing, sneezing and watery eyes heighten the risk of heart disease

.

However, these allergies, in no way, actually cause heart disease, researchers stressed.

Details of the study
To understand the links between common allergic symptoms and heart disease, researchers at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, culled data of over 8,600 adults aged 20 and above, all of whom had participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey held between 1988 and 1994.

Overall, 18 percent of the study subjects reported symptoms of wheezing and 46 percent complained of frequently bouts of a stuffy nose or itchy and watery eyes, the combination medically known as rhinoconjunctivitis.

Six percent of participants suffered some sort of heart disease, researchers found.

While 13 percent of wheezing patients suffered heart disease, 5 percent of rhinoconjunctivitis patients and 4 percent of people without any allergic symptoms were diagnosed with heart troubles, researchers said.

Findings of the study
Researchers found that common allergies were frequently paired with heart ailments.

Wheezing patients were 2.6 times more likely to encounter heart troubles. The risk soared to 40 percent for patients with rhinoconjunctivitis, compared to people without any allergic symptoms.

The tie-ups were mainly common in women younger than age of 50, researchers found.

The findings of the current study second the findings of prior studies which establish “an association of chronic inflammatory conditions such as asthma and other allergic conditions with coronary disease in women but not in men."

"Young women may have a stronger inflammatory response due to allergic conditions than men, perhaps due to estrogens," explained Viola Vaccarino, of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who was also not involved in the current study.

Reasons for the link-up
Study’s principal investigator, Dr. Jongoh Kim of Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, suggests that the sporadic inflammation caused by allergic reactions may also cause hardening of the arterial walls, leading to heart disease.

Secondly, people might be genetically predisposed to the development of both allergies and heart disease, Kim added.

Although the researchers stress that the findings do not establish that allergies actually cause heart disease, more research is required to confirm if there exists a cause and effect relationship.

Even if the cause and effect relationship exists, researchers aren’t sure whether treating allergic disease can reduce the risk.

envira blog