Brain pollution: Evidence builds that dirty air causes Alzheimer’s, dementia | Hacker News Reader

Brain pollution: Evidence builds that dirty air causes Alzheimer’s, dementia

sciencemag.org

95 pointsdsr1226 comments

If this were true we'd expect to see a simple and repeatable observation of decreased Alzheimer's along rural and urban lines. People in the centre of London would be far more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer's than those living on the Atlantic coast of Ireland. This is not the case.

How many people live in the center of London city? Not many. ~12,000 very wealthy rich people last time I looked.

I don't think they were talking about the City. They're talking about Greater London.

My professor in college was the first of a group of researchers who discovered a genetic marker for Alzheimer's:

Pioneer Families Key In Alzheimer’s Find Research Traced Several Generations Of Volga German Families, Including Two From Eastern Washington:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/18/pioneer-familie...

In reports published today in the journal Science, researchers say they have isolated a defective Alzheimer’s gene culled from an 8-year-long investigation of several Volga German families, including two from Eastern Washington. Discovery of the gene, and a protein it produces, could speed development of drugs to combat the brain-destroying disorder.

Maybe, but my grandmother had Alzheimer's and lived in the country all her life and the air was extremely clean. However, her well water was disgustingly polluted with metals. I remember that she would wrap a giant wad of paper towels around her faucet and secure it with a rubber band as a poor man's filter. In a very short time the once white towels would be a dark rust color. I've been thinking for years that this might be the root cause of her condition. Surprisingly, her body was strong right up until her death. It actually seemed like a bit of a curse that her body forced her to continue living with a brain with a short-term memory of a minute or two. In any case, I seriously doubt the root cause for her was the air she was breathing.

The article doesn't claim that air pollution is the only cause of Alzheimer's or dementia. They specifically state something that indicates the opposite:

> If the finding holds up in the general population, air pollution could account for roughly 21% of dementia cases worldwide

So the title should be "...causes some cases of..."

You shouldn’t read “causes” as “is the exclusive cause of” pretty much ever.

They're arguing it's a risk factor. Smoking greatly increases your risk of lung cancer, but non-smokers can get lung cancer.

Presumably there's a substantial ~ Alzheimer increase among smokers too.

You may be on to something with the heavy metals in the water. It's also possible that if she spent most of her time indoors cooking, cleaning with harsh chemicals, or tending to a stove fire she was introduced to just as much air pollution.

Rust/iron in water is considered benign for human consumption AFAIK.

I don't see where the OP specified iron.

First, metals other than iron are generally considered to be poisonous to humans. In fact, aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer's. Second, even too much iron causes metal poisoning.

> dark rust color

That's likely iron oxide, but I see nowhere in his post where the water was actually analyzed by a lab to determine its contents. There's simply insufficient data to draw any meaningful conclusions from.

It's just worth noting that rusty water isn't necessarily bad for you, and is actually rather common. There's no smoking gun in the observation.

This isn't a courtroom. It isn't a murder trial. It's a conversation and I see zero reason to rebut speculation wondering what really happened to someone's late mother, as if they aren't allowed to think out loud and must prove X beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Comments of that ilk on HN are something of a personal pet peeve.

The same thing you're complaining about here equally applies to my casual statment about iron oxide being harmless that you took issue with.

This isn't a courtroom Doreen, I'm just thinking out loud, lay off.

It also applies equally to my observation that he didn't specify what metal it was and that even iron can be harmful when consumed excessively.

That's not a personal attack. It's just factual. Just like your observation that rust, per se, isn't necessarily a reason for concern.

You responded to newnewpdro by telling them you saw no reason for them to make such a comment, and that comments like that are a pet peeve of yours. The word "attack" might be a bit strong, but your stance is plainly adversarial. You essentially just told newnewpdro to keep their thoughts to themself.

FWIW, I didn't read the OP as rebutting anything. I read it as merely an addition -- a BTW if you will -- and an accurate one that is, IMO, a useful little reminder in conversations about metals in drinking water. I found Mc_Big_G's original comment interesting too.

I said that after they got all dismissive in a follow up comment and doubled down with saying there was no smoking gun. This reads to me like someone asserting their right to post random facts and getting pissed and dismissive when someone else does the same.

Before that it was one person listing a general fact followed by another person listing other general facts and somehow that turned into me being told to "lay off".

I don't see where it's reasonable to make me out to be the bad guy here.

it's the blood parasitic bacteria nematodes that harbor and load the heavy metals and release poisons, crawl up the brain and die off and the bodies inability to fight them off because parasites by nature mask their ability to be detected in the body and try to keep their host alive as long as possible. Heavy duty detox protocol with Ivermectin, ALA, NAC, binders prevent this. I've brought this up to many researchers and authorities including showing them CDC, and nobody cares. Alzheimer's is a huge money maker they don't want to find the cure. Cutting down sugar helps kill off the parasites because they can't grow as much. Also the parasites are GMO and sold and used in organic certified food since 1996.

I assume "air pollution" would include smoking? My mother was a lifelong smoker and developed Alzheimer's. As smokers die of old age etc. and non-smokers age up, hopefully we can see a reduction of these cases, or at least a reduction of the rate of increase.

I really don't think Alzheimer's has any specific cause. Risk factors perhaps, but even that is very open to debate.

My dad was a lifelong smoker. Never exercised. Fairly heavy drinker. Died of cancer at age 70, but his cognitive function never diminished.

The article specifically mentions being concerned by and studying air near roadways compared to that which isn’t, as well as controlling for factors such as smoking in study participants. It doesn’t sound like this has much to do with smoking as air pollution.

This makes me very happy I moved out of a city with an air quality rating of F to a city with an A.

Hopefully the 10 years I spent in Chicago don't come back to haunt me later in life.

Since air (at least in the USA) is overall much cleaner than it was a generation or two ago, I wonder how this squares with the seemingly increasing trend of dementia cases. Maybe just people living longer overall, and dementia being (usually) a disease of old age, we see more of it?

It’s probably more that people getting dementia now received damage 20-30 years ago which took time to manifest. That and varying diagnostic criteria and other variables like fitness.

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