Researchers from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford have used data from UK Biobank participants to reveal that diabetes, traffic-related air pollution and alcohol intake are the most harmful out of 15 modifiable risk factors for dementia.
The researchers had previously identified a ‘weak spot’ in the brain, which is a specific network of higher-order regions that not only develop later during adolescence, but also show earlier degeneration in old age. They showed that this brain network is also particularly vulnerable to schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.
In this new study, published in Nature Communications, they investigated the genetic and modifiable influences on these fragile brain regions by looking at the brain scans of 40,000 UK Biobank participants aged over 45.
Traffic pollution feels unavoidable.
At the individual level, yeah, there’s not much to be done, but at the policy level, you can make massive improvements. The implementation of congestion charging in London had huge effects on air pollution. Conversely, adding highways to rip through the middle of old residential neighborhoods has clear detrimental effects on the nearby population. You can look at a map of childhood asthma rates in the Bronx in New York City for a really clear example of that; it significantly spikes in the areas near highways
(and of course, it’s not a coincidence that highways tend to run through minority neighborhoods, so that’s a factor as well)
The fine folks over at c/fuckcars would disagree with that.
Yeah, I’m one of them! By unavoidable I meant that I can control my diet to reduce my risk of diabetes and avoid alcohol, but currently to avoid car pollution I’d have to stay inside and never go anywhere. Hopefully society makes changes that reduce our dependency on cars.
I misunderstood, and yeah agreed. Hopefully electric cars will help with air pollution.
