A Syracuse University professor is conducting a study to look at the relationship between race, lead exposure and the potential risk for heart disease.

Brooks Gump, who is leading the study, said he did a study with a similar idea about 12 years ago. The original study, he said, looked at the connection between socioeconomic status, lead exposure and the risk of heart disease.

Now, Gump, a professor in the Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition, said he wanted to do a similar study with race as a factor.

“We know African-Americans are at higher risk for certain types of heart disease like hypertension, and we know on average they have higher levels of lead than Anglo-Americans,” Gump said.

He said the study will test the hypothesis pointing to lead as the cause of these differences.

The National Institutes of Health awarded Gump a $1.8 million grant to test 300 kids during the next four years, he said.

The kids will be 9, 10 and 11 years old — the same ages used for his previous study on socioeconomic status, Gump added.

Kevin Heffernan, an assistant professor in the Department of Exercise Science, is also involved in the study.

Heffernan said he is performing tests looking at a carotid artery on the participants in this study. He looks at the thickness and stiffness of the artery, and how mental stress affects blood flow to the brain.

All those help indicate, Heffernan said, whether the kids could be at risk for heart disease in the future.

Gump said the 300 kids are from areas with a wide range of lead exposure. Half the test subjects will be African-American and the other half white, he said.

He said he’s hoping the grant will be renewed another four years, so he can do a follow-up test on each subject.

“The retest will allow us to see if their lead levels go down or what the changes are,” Gump said. “We can see if their systems similarly adapt, go back to normal, or what happens. It’ll also show us if the effects of lead are still there after puberty.”

While Gump said there’s no immediate risk of heart disease for the children involved in the study, he said slightly elevated levels of lead in the body can cause problems down the road.

“You can have something with a very small effect, but if it has the same effect day in and day out for 30 years, it has the potential to affect people’s trajectory and risk for heart disease,” Gump said.

The particular branch Gump received the grant from was the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The goal of the organization is to find out how the environment affects people in order promote healthier lives, according to its website.

The website also describes the institute’s mission to reduce and eventually eliminate health disparities.

Heffernan, the assistant professor in the Department of Exercise Science, said after the study is finished, they’ll look at ways kids can improve their health.

Published on September 12, 2013 at 2:50 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27