(21-01-13) Bad air could be destroying your brainpower

by Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor

(NaturalNews) A memory that slips with age and progresses into the dreaded
nightmare of dementia is often considered just a part of growing old. But a
growing body of evidence shows lifestyle has a huge impact on causing thinking
problems in the elderly. Now, new research recently presented in San Diego at
The Gerontological Society of America's (GSA) 65th Annual Scientific Meeting
shows the air you breathe could be damaging your brain. Living in areas of high
air pollution can lead to decreased cognitive function in older adults,
according to the study which analyzed data from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the Health and Retirement Study.

"As a result of age-related declines in health and functioning, older adults
are particularly vulnerable to the hazards of exposure to unhealthy air,"
researcher Jennifer Ailshire, PhD, a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral
fellow in the Center for Biodemography and Population Health and the Andrus
Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California, said in a media
statement. "Air pollution has been linked to increased cardiovascular and
respiratory problems, and even premature death, in older populations, and there
is emerging evidence that exposure to particulate air pollution may have
adverse effects on brain health and functioning as well."

This is the first study that demonstrates how exposure to air pollution
influences cognitive function in a national sample of older men and women.
Ailshire concluded that fine air particulate matter (comprised of particles
that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller), when inhaled, can deposit
deep in the lung and possibly the brain and may be an important environmental
risk factor for a reduced ability to think and remember accurately.

The researcher studied data on 14,793 white, black, and Hispanic men and women
aged 50 and older who participated in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study, a
nationally representative survey of older adults. Then the individual data were
linked with data from the 2004 annual average levels of fine air particulate
matter collected by the Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality System
monitors across the country. Cognitive function (which consisted of tests
assessing word recall, knowledge, language, and orientation) was measured on a
scale of one to 35.

Ailshire discovered that people living in areas where there were high levels
of fine air particulate matter scored poorer on the cognitive function tests.
The association remained even after accounting for several other risk factors
-- such as age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, and respiratory and
cardiovascular disorders.

So just how much of a brain scrambling impact could dirty air really have? It
appears that breathing polluted city air could make your thinking processes age
more quickly than they would if you breathed clean air. The study found that
fine air particulate matter exposures in cities with air pollution ranged from
4.1 to 20.7 micrograms per cubic meter -- and every ten point increase was
associated with a 0.36 point drop in cognitive function score, which is roughly
equal to aging three years.

The study is more evidence that what we do to our bodies can make a big
difference on how well we think and whether or not we avoid dementia. As
Natural News previously reported, for example, scientist William B. Grant, PhD,
of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC) believes a lack
of vitamin D could be the cause of mind-robbing Alzheimer's disease and other
vascular dementia. What's more, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) have discovered that a combination of naturally occurring
nutrients can do what Big Pharma drugs can't -- potentially improve memory in
people diagnosed with dementia.

Sources:

http://www.geron.org
http://www.naturalnews.com/026392_Vitamin_D_Alzheimers_disease.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/027954_nutrients_Alzheimers.html

News

---

In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.