For the study, researchers examined survey data on more than 34,000 U.S. adults who were 49 years old on average, including about 10,000 people who reported a history of asthma or other allergic conditions like respiratory, digestive, or skin allergies. The data came from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Overall, a history of asthma or allergic disorders was associated with a 45 percent higher risk of high blood pressure and a 48 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease. Asthma explained most of the increased risk. Among individuals with a history of asthma or allergic disorders, people who were 37 to 57 years old, Black, and male, had a higher risk of coronary heart disease; adults 18 to 57 years old with a history of allergic disorders had a higher risk of high blood pressure. “For patients with allergic disorders, routine evaluation of blood pressure and routine examination for coronary heart disease should be (done) by clinicians to ensure early treatments are given to those with hypertension or coronary heart disease,” said the lead study author Yang Guo, PhD, of the department of dermatology at Shenzhen Peking University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Medical Center, in a statement. Researchers presented preliminary results from their study at the ACC Asia 2022 Together With KSC (Korean Society of Cardiology) Spring Conference. The results were not published in a medical journal, a process that typically involves other scientists independently verifying the findings. “Further large cohort studies with long-term follow-up are needed to confirm our findings,” Dr. Guo said in the statement. Coronary heart disease develops when plaque accumulation inside artery walls causes these blood vessels to narrow and stiffen over time. It’s the most common type of heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and it’s considered a silent killer because many people don’t know they have it until they have a heart attack. Common risk factors for coronary heart disease include excess body weight, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, smoking, and a family history of heart disease, according to the CDC. These are also risk factors for high blood pressure, as are diabetes and heavy drinking. Asthma has previously been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure. But particularly with coronary heart disease, research results have been inconsistent. One study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, for example, examined data on more than 200,000 adults, half of whom had asthma. Asthma was associated with a 40 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease and more than tripled odds of premature death from all causes. In this study, asthma patients who took corticosteroids, which are commonly prescribed for this condition, had an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Another study, published in Thorax, followed about 13,500 middle-aged adults for 14 years, and found that people with current asthma or a history of this disease were up to 55 percent more likely to have a stroke. But in this study, current or former asthma patients were up to 31 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease. It might matter at what age people develop asthma. A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association focused on a group of 1,269 adults, including 55 people who developed asthma during childhood and 111 who didn’t get diagnosed with asthma until they were adults. Compared with participants without asthma, those diagnosed as adults were 57 percent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.
