Dr K K Aggarwal

eMedinewS Editorial

Coffee, Sex, Smog Can All Trigger Heart Attack, Study Finds

Air pollution while stuck in traffic topped the list of potential heart attack triggers, with the researchers pegging 7.4% of heart attacks to roadway smog. Coffee was also linked to 5% of attacks, booze to another 5 percent, and pot smoking to just under 1 percent, the European researchers found. Among everyday activities, exerting yourself physically was linked to 6.2% of heart attacks, indulging in a heavy meal was estimated to trigger 2.7%, and sex was linked to 2.2%.

For example, air pollution is a minor trigger for heart attacks, but since so many people are exposed to smog, it triggers many more heart attacks than other more potent triggers, such as alcohol and cocaine.

The report is published in the Feb. 24 online edition of The Lancet. In terms of risk, the team found that air pollution increased a person’s risk of having a heart attack by just under 5%. In contrast, coffee increased the risk by 1.5 times, alcohol tripled the risk, and cocaine use increased the odds for heart attack 23–fold. However, because only a small number of people in the entire population are exposed to cocaine, while hundreds of millions are exposed to air pollution daily, air pollution was estimated to cause more heart attacks across the population than cocaine.

Even emotional states can sometimes trigger a heart attack, the team found. For example, negative emotions in general were linked to almost 4% of heart attacks while anger, specifically, was linked to just over 3 percent. Even “good” emotional states were tied to 2.4% of heart attacks.
(Source: Medlineplus)

Dr KK Aggarwal
Editor in Chief