Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Maybe It's Happening To You, Too?

AQI Effects Me.  Why Not You Too?

When I first was diagnosed with high blood it was intermittent?  Intermittent?  

WTF?  Weird

Either you have blood pressure (the silent killer) or you don't!  Right?  Not sometimes?   HPB doesn't come and go.  I'd go to a screening at work and it would be high.  I'd go to the doctor and it would be low like it has been all my life.   All my indicators (cholesterol, diet, exercise, sleep, etc..) were good. The doctor and I passed it off as job stress.  It wasn't.

Air Quality is the culprit.

My  intermittent HPB returned this year (18 years later) and being an ex-data analyst, I tracked when it happened.  It happened only when and every time the air quality is bad.  So I verified my suspicions with various medical schools and found these environmental factors raise blood pressure
  • Pollution.  Most of which comes from cars. (see chart)
  • Ozone. Again the primary source of ground layer ozone is cars
  • Second hand smoke:  Other people's cigarettes

As it turns out my high blood pressure 18 years ago, wasn't stress.  I worked in building built over diesel locomotives as they idled their engines to keep them warm for the evening commute.  All the exhaust filtered up through the building.  

How about you?

Have you ever felt these symptoms on an intermittent, but regular bases?  Maybe when you are outside or around smokers?
  • Headache
  • Fatigue
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Shortness of breath
  • Restlessness
  • Blurred vision
Or perhaps you are a culprit?  Which means you can do something about your own or someone else's problem