Some of the greatest minds in Alzheimer’s research are presenting at a conference in Denver this week, sharing what they found about air quality and dementia.
DENVER — Bettering the air quality could reduce the risk of dementia, according to research being presented in Denver at this week’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
Dr. Xinhui Wang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of research neurology, worked with her colleagues at the University of Southern California to study how air pollutants specifically impact dementia and more specifically, “what reducing them might mean for long-term brain health.”
Wang said it’s already widely known that particulates from the air can move into the body through the lungs and bloodstream and lead to neuropathological changes in the brain that could lead to or worsen Alzheimer’s disease. From 2008 to 2018, Wang studied people who moved away from bad air.
The team found that reducing small particulate matter and traffic pollution over a 10-year period, per 10% of the federal government’s current standard, was associated with at least a 14% reduction in dementia risk in older women in America.
Their study also showed a slower decline in overall cognitive function and memory when the air quality was improved.
“These benefits occurred in women regardless of their age, level of education, the geographic region where they lived, and whether they had cardiovascular disease,” the Alzheimer’s Association reported.
Other University of California researchers in San Diego similarly looked at adults 65 and older in France between 1990 and 2000. They found reducing fine particulate matter resulted in a reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The Alzheimer’s Association also shared findings from researchers at the University of Washington who found a “strong link” between air pollutants and a protein component in the brain plaques found in Alzheimer’s patients.
Jim Herlihy with the Denver chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association told 9NEWS that understanding air pollution’s impact on this disease is also important to help understand why it impacts communities differently.
“It’s one of the many factors in terms of Alzheimer’s risk. There’s age, there’s diet, there’s blood pressure, there’s a lot of different factors including heredity, and now we’re understanding the environment’s risk on it,” Herlihy said.
“We already know that certain populations — Black Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s, Hispanics are 50% more likely. We know the factors at least, they’re attributed to diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension, but we don’t know how much things like air pollution may factor into that.”
The conference runs in Denver through July 30.
You can read more about the research presented here.
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