Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/21c4w94zp3k   Aspirin and other NSAIDs may help prevent lung damage from particulate air pollution.  Epidemiologists and pulmonologists at Columbia and Harvard draw this conclusion from their analysis of more than 2200 male veterans.   Each participant underwent pulmonary function tests and recorded their use of NSAIDs over the month before testing.  Air quality measurements during that month were added to the database.  Analysis showed that NSAID use, which turned out to be mostly aspirin, reduced the effects of air pollution on lung function by one-half.  If you expect significant exposure to air pollution, you might try aspirin.  Better strategies are use of a mask or remaining in clean air.   Xu Gao, Brent Coull, Xihong Lin, Pantel Vokonas, Joel Schwartz, Andrea A Baccarelli. Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Modify the Effect of Short-Term Air Pollution on Lung Function. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2019; DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201905-1003LE   #Airp