14 DAY TRIAL // Folks living in urban areas might be tempted to cycle to and back from work, not only to improve on their ecological footprint, but also to keep fit. It turns out that opting for a bicycle instead of a car might not be such a good idea after all.
Thus, a recent study has revealed that cyclists who practice this sport in cities and not in the countryside risk suffering heart damage, and may even develop several other health problems as a result of their choosing a bike over a car.
Specialists explain that, for the time being, loads of air pollutants are hovering over the world's major urban areas. Some of these pollutants come from exhaust fumes, others are the result of various industrial processes, Road reports.
When walking around a city, pedestrians are exposed to them, and end up breathing them in. Due to the heavy breathing that cyclists experience when busy pedaling, odds are that they breathe in more of these air pollutants than pedestrians do.
The pollutant that worries researchers the most is something known as fine particulate matter, i.e. myriads of very tiny particles that are released by diesel-powered vehicles, and which, once inside a person's organism, can cause inflammatory reactions.
After looking into the overall health condition of 32 cyclists, specialist Marguerite Nyhan of Trinity College Dublin and her colleagues found that exposure to fine particulate matter and other air pollutants negatively affects the heart's ability to respond and adapt to different levels of exertion.
By the looks of it, the decline in health rate variability documented during this investigation is similar to that recorded in the case of folks diagnosed with heart disease.
“These [findings] indicate that exercise while commuting has an influence on inhaled particulate matter, associated with acute declines in heart rate variability, especially in pedestrians and cyclists,” the researchers write in their paper.
In light of this discovery, specialists recommend that cyclists opt for routes that are located at a considerable distance from heavy traffic. Pedestrians should do the same.