🔊 Noise as a cardiovascular risk factor: Environmental noise from road, rail, and air traffic is now firmly established as a major, widespread contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Roughly one in three Europeans is chronically exposed to noise levels exceeding WHO guideline thresholds, significantly driving cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.🩺 Health outcomes: Strong meta-analytic evidence links… Continue reading Transportation Noise and Cardiovascular Health: Evidence, Mechanisms, and Policy Imperatives. 

A commentary related to MARKOPOLO.

🚙 Chronic traffic noise activates stress hormone pathways, disrupts sleep, and induces hypertension and vascular inflammation.🌫️ Air pollution, fine particulate matter, particularly ultrafine particles (PM₂.₅, UFP), can penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream, and promote oxidative stress, endothelial injury, and atherosclerosis.☀️ Increasingly frequent heatwaves place particular strain on elderly individuals and those with pre-existing cardiovascular… Continue reading A comprehensive review/expert statement on environmental risk factors of cardiovascular disease

⏰ Circadian rhythms influence cardiovascular function and disease progression, shaping daily patterns in events like myocardial infarction, heart failure, and arrhythmias.🧠 Autonomic balance shifts over 24 hours, with parasympathetic dominance during sleep and sympathetic activation during the day, affecting cardiac recovery and stress response.🩺 Despite dampened rhythms in heart failure, circadian cycles remain present –… Continue reading Circadian rhythms in cardiovascular disease

A commentary related to MARKOPOLO.

A commentary on physical activity and air pollution.

🫀 Environmental exposures like noise and air pollution are significant, modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), acting alongside classic and behavioral risk factors such as hypertension, smoking, and diet. 🫀 Both noise and air pollution induce oxidative stress and inflammation, with noise primarily affecting the brain and stress axis, while air pollution damages the… Continue reading Impact of noise and air pollution on the cardiovascular system through the brain-heart axis

🌍 It is estimated that 2/3 of all chronic diseases are caused by environmental and lifestyle risk factors.🌍 Leading environmental risk factors for global death/disease are air pollution, hot/cold temperature, lead and unsafe water.🌍 The exposome concept describes the health impact by all environmental and lifestyle risk factors over entire life course.🌍 It also considers… Continue reading Cardiovascular risk posed by the exposome

🐭👥 A combined mouse and human study by MARKOPOLO researchers from Mainz (University Medical Center, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Cyprus Institute) shows that shortterm exposure to synthetic nanoparticles (<250 nm) causes damage in remote organs, endothelial dysfunction and increased blood pressure, whereas microparticles (2-4 µm) accumulate in the lung leading to local pulmonary… Continue reading Differential inflammation, oxidative stress and cardiovascular damage markers of nano- and micro-particle exposure in mice: Implications for human disease burden

💡 Hypertension is multifactorial. It results from a complex interplay of biological, genetic, and environmental factors.💡 Environmental stressors play a major role – air, noise, and chemical pollution, built environments, and food systems significantly influence blood pressure levels.💡The “mosaic model”, a conceptual framework, explains hypertension and views it as a network of interconnected causes rather… Continue reading Environmental Hypertensionology and the Mosaic Theory of Hypertension