Allergies Linked to Heart Disease

[GoingNuts]

From Newsday:

Heart disease linked to allergies, study finds
By TNS
 
Inflammation is what links allergies to heart disease, experts said. Credit: Dreamstime / TNS
Most people probably would not connect seasonal allergies with their hearts. Itchy, watery eyes and stuffy noses, sure — but not cardiovascular issues.

Researchers are finding signs of just such a link. And while nobody is saying your next sneeze is cause for alarm, experts say the connection is worth being aware of.

That link is not a straightforward case of an allergen triggering a sudden heart problem, said Dr. Rauno Joks, a rheumatologist and allergist at State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn. It's about long-term inflammation.


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"You could say that allergic disease is a systemic and inflammatory condition," said Joks. The stimulus may be pollen in the nose, but the response goes all the way down into the bone marrow, where the body creates specialized cells to fight off intruders.

That response can lead to chronic inflammation, he said. And as noted in a 2018 review of research on allergic inflammation in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, inflammation plays a role in both the initiation and progression of coronary artery disease.

Joks was senior author of the largest study to examine the links between allergies and heart disease. Published in June in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, the study used data from about 603,000 people taking part in the U.S. National Health Interview Surveys between 1999 and 2018.

Dr. Sairaman Nagarajan, a physician editor at The Merck Manuals and an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences, was lead author on that study. It found that both asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever), were associated with increased odds for heart disease.


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Specifically, people who reported having allergic rhinitis in the prior year had 25% greater odds of also having coronary heart disease and 20% greater odds of having had a heart attack.

Dr. Nora Lin, a Philadelphia-area allergist, has seen how an allergist and cardiologist can work together to make a difference. "I can point to one patient I have in particular," she said.

The man, 60, had high blood pressure that he kept under control through medication. But his allergies and asthma would flare in the spring and fall as he worked in his garden, and his blood pressure also would creep up.

Instead of boosting his blood pressure medications, his cardiologist recommended he try allergy shots, which can help build resistance to allergens. It's not an approach for everyone, Lin said, but after five years of allergy shots, his blood pressure is no longer up at the end of allergy season.