Green spaces and bodies of water appear to protect a person’s arteries Urban dwellers with better access to natural areas had less hardened arteries Black people in particular benefitted from proximity to parks, lakes and rivers MONDAY, July 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Parks and lakes aren’t just good for your soul -- new research suggests they also appear to protect your arteries. Living near green space and “blue” water space lowers a person’s odds of hardened arteries in middle-aged urban dwellers, researchers found. For every 10% increase in access to green space, the odds of having coronary artery calcification decline by 15%, on average, according to findings published June 27 in the journal “Our findings provide quantitative evidence supporting environmental policies to enhance the accessibility and quality of residential blue and green spaces,” said researcher , a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Artery calcification occurs when calcium forms plaques on the walls of arteries. These plaques can combine with blood clots to clog the arteries, causing and strokes. For the study, researchers tracked nearly 3,000 men and women from four cities for 25 years, from 1985 to 2010.
The participants hailed from Birmingham, Ala.; Chicago; Minneapolis; and Oakland, Calif. The research team compared CT scans taken at age 50 of calcium deposits in people’s arteries with their access to parks, water bodi.
