The Air You Breathe May Affect Your Alzheimer's Risk (March 2024)
www.alzinfo.org

... People who live in areas with lots of vehicle traffic and who breath in pollutants from diesel exhaust and other sources have brain changes that are tied to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. These findings, detailed in a recent study, add to growing evidence linking air pollution to brain decline.

For the new study, published in the journal Neurology, researchers at Emory University looked for signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brains of 224 deceased men and women in the Atlanta area who had donated their brains to science. Their average age at death was 76.

The researchers also looked at the home addresses of the donors at the time of death, and determined traffic-related air pollution levels near their homes in the years preceding their deaths. They focused on levels of PM2.5, the tiny pollutant particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that can be particularly damaging to health. This fine particulate matter can enter the bloodstream where high levels are linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, respiratory problems and lung disease. These tiny particles may also enter the brain, and a growing body of research has linked them to an increased risk of dementia.

The investigators found that those people who lived in areas with high levels of traffic-related air pollution had higher amounts of amyloid plaques in their brains. The presence of amyloid plaques, which are formed by the clumping together of toxic beta-amyloid in the brain, is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. People with the highest exposure to fine particulate matter in the year before their death were nearly twice as likely to have higher levels of plaques, while those with higher exposure in the three years before death were 87 percent more likely to have higher levels of plaques. ...