Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

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NF52
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Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by NF52 »

Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70

This link provides a synopsis of an Alzheimer's Association conference presentation yesterday (July 26) on multiple studies in the US and France on the beneficial effect of reduced exposure to particulate air pollution for brain health. Even when air quality improved during the later years of life, the women still benefited.
Improved air quality was tied to lower dementia risk and slower cognitive decline, studies presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) showed.

Dementia risk dropped by 26% in older women who lived in U.S. locations with greater reductions in traffic-related nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and by 14% in areas with a greater decline in fine particulate matter (PM2.5), said Xinhui Wang, PhD, of University of Southern California. These relationships occurred regardless of age, education, geographic region, APOE4 genotype, or cardiovascular risk.

Similar findings emerged in France, where reduced fine particulate matter concentrations were tied to a lower risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease, reported Noémie Letellier, PhD, of University of California San Diego.

Moreover, long-term air pollution exposure was linked to higher plasma beta-amyloid levels in U.S. adults, according to research presented by Christina Park, MPH, of University of Washington in Seattle.

Last year, the Lancet Commission added late-life air pollution exposure to its list of key modifiable risk factors for dementia...
"Our findings are important because they strengthen the evidence that high levels of outdoor air pollution in later life harm our brains and also provide new evidence that, by improving air quality, we may be able to significantly reduce risk of cognitive decline and dementia," Wang said.
4/4 and still an optimist!
circular
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by circular »

Thanks NF52. It's good to see there's such growing consensus on this issue and to see that reducing air pollution could actually lower risk. It could be a good incentive for more people to use high powered particulate and VOC air purifiers in their homes.
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by J11 »

Circ, I have looked online and found a room HEPA air filtration unit for roughly $100. The specs mention that it can remove small particulates. Could this be helpful in reducing AD risk?
circular
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

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J11 wrote:Circ, I have looked online and found a room HEPA air filtration unit for roughly $100. The specs mention that it can remove small particulates. Could this be helpful in reducing AD risk?
I'm not sure a HEPA filter is enough, but it's been a while since I was somewhat steeped in this topic. It's important to know the exact minimum size of particle it blocks. I'm skeptical of one that cheap on its face. One that many like is the Air Doctor, which if I recall right helps filter both particles and VOCs. It's more like $300 I think through Mark Hyman's link. I got the much more expensive IQAir Health Pro Plus, which I'm very confident filters the smallest particles possible (down to .003 I think?). I run it in the bedroom all night and put it in the main living area all day. I run the whole house fan 24/7 which helps control VOCs, and when my Eve VOC monitor shows they are rising anyway, then I open up some windows and doors. (If they're open anyway the VOCs don't go up.) I also have cleared my home of all harsh chemical products, and I don't diffuse essential oils, which also produce VOCs. All products are fragrance free, other than vinegar and a few essential oils in home made cleaning products.
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by J11 »

circ, thank you for replying.

I am feeling so great now in vacation mode, I am not sure that I want to return to reality -- ever. Yeah, vacation!
Anyone else out there that has been carefully following the anti-amyloid (I guess you could say) epic also take a vacation; you'll feel great. Rounds two and three are already baked in, so if you do decide to return to civilization there will be so much fun to look forward to.

With the hepa/air filter from what I can see this could make sense. Not so long our city sent us out a flyer alerting us to the dangers of lead contamination in the water supply. There was a large sense of irony involved here because the notification was simply telling us that the city was mitigating the risk that had pre-existed for decades. The notice warned of the risk to pregnant women and their off-spring to the metal contamination --also present for decades. I want to be more proactive with my health. I want to make sure that I breathe clean air and drink clean water. Spending a reasonable amount of money on an air filtration system seems reasonable to me.
I also got a bottle of 7,8 dihyroxyflavone which supposedly can help with brain damage from lead exposure.
circular
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by circular »

J11 wrote:I want to be more proactive with my health. I want to make sure that I breathe clean air and drink clean water. Spending a reasonable amount of money on an air filtration system seems reasonable to me.
I also got a bottle of 7,8 dihyroxyflavone which supposedly can help with brain damage from lead exposure.
It's good to hear you're ramping up your efforts to be proactive with your health, and a vacation sounds like a great way to kick off such an endeavor! I got the AquaTru filter for water filtration and use ConcenTrace mineral drops to put back the good stuff. I got lucky and scored a used but brand new one for $150 including new filters. That made up somewhat for the uber expensive air filter I got.
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

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New study out of University of Washington about the increased risk of dementia due to PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or smaller) .
"We found that an increase of 1 microgram per cubic meter of exposure corresponded to a 16% greater hazard of all-cause dementia. There was a similar association for Alzheimer's-type dementia," said lead author Rachel Shaffer, who conducted the research as a doctoral student in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences...

In their final analysis, the researchers found that just a 1 microgram per cubic meter difference between residences was associated with 16% higher incidence of dementia. To put that difference into perspective, Shaffer said, in 2019 there was approximately 1 microgram per cubic meter difference in PM2.5 pollution between Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle and the residential areas around Discovery Park.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 123113.htm

And for any of us living where wildfire smoke has been a frequent visitor this summer, you might want to look at your outdoor exercise habits (and wear a mask) and invest in a good air purifier for your house.
circular
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by circular »

SusanJ wrote:New study out of University of Washington about the increased risk of dementia due to PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or smaller) .
"We found that an increase of 1 microgram per cubic meter of exposure corresponded to a 16% greater hazard of all-cause dementia. There was a similar association for Alzheimer's-type dementia," said lead author Rachel Shaffer, who conducted the research as a doctoral student in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences...

In their final analysis, the researchers found that just a 1 microgram per cubic meter difference between residences was associated with 16% higher incidence of dementia. To put that difference into perspective, Shaffer said, in 2019 there was approximately 1 microgram per cubic meter difference in PM2.5 pollution between Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle and the residential areas around Discovery Park.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 123113.htm

And for any of us living where wildfire smoke has been a frequent visitor this summer, you might want to look at your outdoor exercise habits (and wear a mask) and invest in a good air purifier for your house.
Thanks for this Susan.

Does anyone have any idea how to put 1 microgram per cubic meter into measurement perspective instead of geographical perspective?
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
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SusanJ
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

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circular wrote:Does anyone have any idea how to put 1 microgram per cubic meter into measurement perspective instead of geographical perspective?
The geography mentioned is likely just two monitoring stations for the study area. What I think this study is saying is that over the long haul, just a small amount of increased PM2.5 exposure in one area as compared to another area close by, can raise the risk of dementia. One might surmise that downtown Seattle has more car pollution increasing PM2.5 amounts.

The more important thing for us, is how many micrograms per cubic meter are we breathing? The EPA has set a 24 hour range of 1-12 micrograms/cubic meter as okay, >12 to 35.4 to moderate and >35.5 as unhealthy. But wind, rain, temperature, traffic patterns, nearby fires and all sorts of external factors influence the measured amounts. So, I see this in Colorado with wildfires. With so many wildfires in the West right now, some days the AQI (air quality index) is okay but when the wind switches, the AQI goes into unhealthy. Or it rains and improves the air temporarily as it did during our recent monsoonal period.

For most of us, it is probably important to monitor the AQI daily if we live in areas prone to high numbers.

Here's an EPA document that explains how the AQI reports work and a table with the AQI index number translation to the microgram amount if you want to know more.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files ... tsheet.pdf
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Re: Better Air, Better Brains--even after age 70.

Post by MarcR »

Thanks, Susan - very helpful link. The upper end of the "good" AQI range - 50 - corresponds to 12 in the study units.

The calculated PM2.5 exposure for study subjects (table S3) ranged from 5-18 over the 25 year period, but the metrics improved steadily and dramatically over that period. In the first year (1994), the range was 13-18, and in the most recent year (2018), the range was 5-7. The actual paper details the statistical gymnastics performed to extract PR-friendly results from the unruly dataset.

Because observational studies like this one are vastly easier to perform than prospective and interventional studies, we're under constant pressure (the streetlight effect) to pretend that they reveal causal relationships with precision when they actually just identify statistical correlations for which the arrows and sources of causality are unknown.

My personal rule of thumb is to give little credence to observational studies unless
  1. the relationship is strong (hazard ratio <0.5 or >2),
  2. the sample size is large (n>~50,000), and
  3. the implied explanation for the implied causality is intuitively compelling.
This study is well short of meeting criteria 1 and 2, and it falls somewhat short on 3. Air pollution is a logical dementia cause; however, I doubt that small variances like one microgram per cubic meter would have much effect.
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