News

It's not just the athletes who should be worried about the poor air quality during the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Some spectators could be stricken with heart attacks or strokes when they breathe in the thick haze that blankets China's capital, warn experts at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

In previous research, the scientists demonstrated that microscopic pollution particles - spewed out by vehicles and factories - can cause lungs to become inflamed. As a result, the lungs secrete a substance called interleukin-6 that makes the blood thicker and stickier than normal.

"If you are an at-risk individual, meaning that you have underlying cardiovascular disease [with partly blocked or narrowed blood vessels], this increased tendency to form blood clots may put you at risk for developing a heart attack or stroke," said Gokhan Mutlu, an assistant professor of medicine.

Although the Chinese government has introduced measures to curb pollution during the Games, the air quality is still expected to be far worse than in most North Americans cities.

"The pollution levels could be 10 times higher than most people are used to," said Scott Budinger, an associate professor of medicine.

To make matters worse, long-distance air travel also boosts the chances of forming blood clots in the legs. "If you spend a few weeks in Beijing, your blood might become thicker and sticky and then when you fly back [home], that further increases your risk," Dr. Mutlu said. "If clots migrate into the lungs and cause pulmonary embolism, that could kill you."

Dr. Budinger suggests spectators, particularly those with pre-existing medical conditions, should visit a doctor before departing. A daily tablet of acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as Aspirin, can help inhibit the formation of blood clots, he noted.

He suggests that, while on the plane, do leg exercises and frequently walk up and down the aisle to prevent blood from pooling in the legs.

A PIECE OF CAKE

Egg allergies can be beaten, according to Greek researchers.

These allergies are extremely common, affecting one in 17 children under the age of 3. Most kids will outgrow an egg allergy by the time they reach grade school. But the development of tolerance can be accelerated by gradually exposing children to increasing amounts of egg.

For the study, researchers regularly fed 94 children cake baked with eggs, starting with a few crumbs and working up to a full bite. During the trial, the egg content of the cake was also increased from one to six eggs.

The high temperature of the baking process altered the egg protein so that it was less likely to trigger a full-blown allergic reaction, said the lead researcher, Nikos Papadopoulos, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

After six months of daily exposure, the kids were given cooked egg to eat, rather than cake baked with eggs.

More than 95 per cent of the children showed no ill effects and were apparently free of the allergy.

But Dr. Papadopoulos cautions parents should not try this on their own. "This is a medical procedure," he said in an e-mail interview. "It could be disastrous to have mothers experimenting with their egg-allergic children."

BAD HABITS

Even a brush with cancer early in life doesn't seem to dissuade some people from taking up the habit of smoking.

A British survey of childhood-cancer survivors found that 20 per cent of them currently smoke and 29.8 per cent have been regular smokers at some point in their adult lives.

The researchers, led by Clare Frobisher of the University of Birmingham, said more study is needed to determine why someone would even consider smoking after already battling one cancer.

But the finding, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is certainly not encouraging news. After all, adult survivors of childhood cancer are at elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease, lung problems and second malignancies, compared with the general public.

"These increased risks are due to long-term effects of the original cancer and its treatment, as well as to genetic conditions that predisposed the survivors to multiple cancers. Smoking would be an additional source of risk for this population," the researchers point out in a statement released with their study.

An editorial in the journal says more effort should be made to prevent smoking in this vulnerable group of cancer survivors.

"It is indeed tragic for those who survive one cancer to be put at risk for other life-threatening diseases as a result of smoking," the editorial says.