COLUMBUS, Ohio — Americans spend billions of dollars fighting the battle of the bulge.
From fad diets to fancy gyms, it’s an ongoing war.
But what about the air we breathe.
Is it worse for us than a triple-decker burger?
"We know that if you live in a heavily polluted area, that can have effects on multiple different organ systems in human health," said Dr. Loren Wold, a professor at The Ohio State University.
Wold is part of a research team studying air quality and its effects on human life. In one study, laboratory mice were exposed to air pollutants. Researchers focused on the biological changes.
It didn't take long to see results.
“Basically, body weight. Significant increase in body weight,” he said. “We're seeing any exposure of concentrated particles causes a significant---20 to 40% increase--- in body weight, which is quite similar to what we're seeing in humans who are born and live a majority of their life in heavily polluted areas."
The OSU study found that mice exposed to high levels of air pollutants showed higher amounts of fat in the midsection and internal organs.
“This is one of the first, if not the first, study to show that these fine particulates directly cause inflammation and changes in fat cells, both of which increase the risk for Type 2 diabetes,” said Qinghua Sun, an OSU professor and lead author of the initial study.
While the study showed mice gained weight, further research found something totally unexpected: Weight gain passed down to offspring even without exposure to pollution.
“Yes, it was very scary to us and we really wanted to do a study to show it didn't have an effect on the offspring,” Wold said, “and unfortunately we saw that there was a potential effect.”
“It was quite shocking.”
The findings are still being examined and more studies are planned to further explore the effects air quality has on human health, and our innocent off-spring. Clearly, however, air pollution is causing more harm than respiratory ailments.
Medical experts say the OSU study, and others like it, show we all must work harder to overcome our ailing environment to achieve better health.
"I think that the message that comes from all of these studies, when you talk about all of them in a collective way, is that the environment is critically important to determine the diseases that we get,” said Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte of the Cleveland Clinic.
Experts believe future research may unmask the full impact pollution has on our bodies. Our weight, cardio issues, Alzheimer's….even the harm we're doing to future generations.
"… we're now starting to realize that this exposure can have an effect on future generations,” Wold said. “And so are we setting our offspring up to have issues just because of our personal exposure.
"Absolutely innocent bystanders that are potentially going to have significant ailments based on exposure of the parents.”