(PRINTWORDS NEWS) Cycling is often pitched as one of the best forms of exercise in case if you want to maintain good health. In countries such as China, riding a cycle is also considered to be the best possible way to glide through the colossal traffic that plagues almost every major city in the nation.
However, the positive attributes of cycling could suffer a significant setback if findings of a recent study are taken into consideration. According to the research which was undertaken by the Belgium based Hasselt University, cycling in traffic is one of the prime triggers of heart attack.
Factors such as exposure to traffic fumes as well as stress, contribute significantly in ensuring that spending more time in traffic increases the risk of a cardiac arrest for cyclists, drivers as well as commuters.
However, among the three, cyclists are more prone to suffering a heart attack as they are increasingly exposed to pollution and at the same time, they subject themselves to another important contributing factor to heart attacks, which is exercising.
Scientists feel that the results of the study are extremely pertinent as this is the very first time that the triggering factors of heart attack have been evaluated.
Following the study, it was concluded that the exposure to pollution during traffic resulted in 7.4 per cent of the heart attack cases while physical exertion amounted to 6.2 per cent of the cases of heart attack. Other factors such as consuming alcohol or coffee triggered 5 per cent of the total heart attack cases and air pollution caused 5 to 7 per cent of the cases
