New research reveals the long-term health benefits of breathing clean air.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—A new study published in the journal Stroke suggests that taking care of your lungs today could have positive repercussions for your brain later in life. The study of South American adults finds that people who live healthy lives, and cut down on things that can lead to respiratory infections late in life, could be at a lower risk for strokes.

THE DETAILS: The researchers analyzed medical records for respiratory, urinary, and abdominal infections in 105 stroke patients and 354 stroke-free control subjects. All the participants were comparable in age and had similar risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The stroke case patients had a 29 percent infection rate in the year preceding a stroke, compared to 13 percent in the control patients. Case patients’ respiratory infection rates were particularly high. In the three months preceding a stroke, the case patients had a respiratory infection rate of 19 percent, whereas the controls had only 6 percent.

WHAT IT MEANS: While no link is proved here, the research strongly implies that the health of your lungs can be an indicator of your risk for stroke. “The study introduces respiratory infection as a possible new, nontraditional vascular risk factor [for stroke] in patients with a history of any of the classic risk factors,” such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity, says the study”s lead author Maria Cristina Zurru, MD, from the neurology department at Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. “This implies that primary prevention of respiratory infection may reduce the incidence of a cerebrovascular event,” such as a stroke.

In other words, protecting your lungs may also protect your brain. “Lots of things that cause respiratory infections can also cause stroke. There’s an intimate linkage between so many offending agents in environment and the health of the lungs and blood vessels in your heart and your brain,” says Norman H. Edelman, MD, chief medical officer at the American Lung Association. He cautions that more research is needed, and notes that respiratory infections late in life are generally tied to lifestyle factors that influenced health when you were younger.