investigator have get a link between exposure to strain defilement and brain atrophy and store loss . The discipline focused on the effects of fine particle , also known as PM2.5 particle , on people ’s brain and how these might conduct to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer ’s disease .
As reported in the journalBrain , the team saw that women aged 73 to 87 queer to PM2.5 were more likely to have a greater decline in memory , as well as showing Alzheimer’s - like changes to the brain . The study was carry on on 998 women from across the United States .
" This is the first study to really show , in a statistical model , that air pollution was associated with changes in hoi polloi ’s learning ability and that those change were then connected with diminution in memory board performance , " Andrew Petkus , an assistant professor of clinical neurology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California , said in astatement . " Our Bob Hope is that by dependable sympathize the underlying mastermind changes induce by air travel pollution , researchers will be able to spring up interposition to help multitude with or at peril for cognitive decline . "
The women in the study were part of the landmark Women ’s Health Initiative , which was launched in 1993 to well understand conditions such as warmheartedness disease , cancer , osteoporosis , and other condition . The woman in the field had up to two nous scans five years apart , and the squad used a machine - learning algorithm to identify any changes in the Einstein that are distinctive of dementedness .
The Women ’s Health Initiative also render important environmental data about the patient role , and the squad was able to extrapolate the impact of o.k. atom on these adult female . The exposure is certainly not the full account , but it raise some crucial questions on the possible role of defilement in making citizenry more susceptible to this variety of disease .
" This study provide another piece of the Alzheimer ’s disease puzzler by key some of the mental capacity change linking air pollution and store declination . Each research study gets us one step closer to solving the Alzheimer ’s disease epidemic , " Petkus say .
Over 30 million masses suffer from Alzheimer ’s disease worldwide . The condition is the sixth - leading cause of decease in the United States , and there is presently no known cure or effective treatment .
