Arsenic In Well Water Linked To Heart Attacks

Arsenic in well water may be linked to an increase in heart attacks.

Ana Navas-Acien, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, investigated the association by way of the ongoing Heart Strong Study, which says it is the "largest epidemiologic study of cardiovascular disease in American Indians."

The study has "tracked the lifestyles and environmental exposures of more than 4,000 people since the late 1980s," according to the New York Times. "Dr. Navas-Acien and her colleagues compared urinary arsenic levels and disease rates among the Native Americans in the study."

This group relies mainly on well water, and sometimes that water is tainted with arsenic. "Although the Environmental Protection Agency sets a 10 parts-per-billion safety standard for drinking water, only municipal water utilities are required to meet it," the report said.

The findings?

"As levels of arsenic rose in individuals, she found, so did the incidences of atherosclerosis, of stroke, of heart attack. For those with chronic exposure to arsenic, rates of cardiovascular illness were often doubled, even after taking into account various lifestyle and genetic risks," the Times reported.

The design of arsenic makes it dangerous for the human body.

"Arsenic, it turns out, has the unique ability to attach themselves to certain fat cell receptors, which can then modify the way the body metabolizes fat. In the process, this leads to the buildup of plaque on the artery walls, clogging blood's normal passageway and restricting the amount of blood that flows," Youth Health Mag reported.

Navas-Acien spoke with confidence about the link between cardiovascular risk and arsenic consumption: “On the question of whether arsenic is a cardiovascular risk, I would say yes, and I would put my hand in the fire to that,” she said in the report.

Dr. Gervasio Lamas, chief of cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, said the link between heart risk and environmental threats deserves more attention.

“We need more cardiologists to be thinking about environmental effects on the heart,” he said, per the report. “It’s not just some abstract E.P.A. problem. It’s actually affecting our patients.”