A long time ago, a worldwide review dispatched by the journal Lancet recorded 12 modifiable elements that expanded the risk of dementia, including three new ones: excessive drinking, head injuries, and polluted air.
A group of researchers led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, elaborate further on how exposure to the final of those new factors—ambient air pollution like car exhaust and power plant emissions—is linked to a significantly higher risk of dementia over time in a paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on May 2, 2023.
William S. Kremen, Ph.D., senior author, professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and co-director of the Center for Behavior Genetics of Aging, and colleagues looked at baseline cognitive assessments of approximately 1,100 men who were participating in the ongoing Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging. With 12 years of follow-up, the average baseline age was 56.
“According to the 2020 Lancet article, changing 12 risk variables, which also include others like education and midlife depression, might cut the prevalence of dementia by as much as 40%.”
Carol E. Franz, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Center for Behavior Genetics of Aging.
Assessments of episodic memory, executive function, verbal fluency, brain processing speed, and APOE genotype were also taken into consideration. They also looked at measures of exposure to specific matter (PM2.5) in the air and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is produced when fossil fuels are burned.
APOE is a quality that gives guidelines for making a protein pivotal to the transport of cholesterol and different fats in the circulation system. One variant or allele of APOE, known as APOE-4, has been identified as a significant Alzheimer’s disease risk factor gene.
The specialists found that members with more significant levels of openness to PM2.5 and NO2 in their 40s and 50s showed more terrible mental workings in verbal familiarity from age 56 to 68. In addition, individuals with the APOE-4 allele appeared to be even more sensitive, with executive function and episodic memory outcomes deteriorating when they were exposed to higher levels of NO2 and PM2.5, respectively.
The higher-level cognitive abilities that are used to plan, control, and coordinate mental actions and behaviors are referred to as “executive function.” Rambling memory is the capacity to review and yet again experience particular, explicit previous occasions.
“The 2020 Lancet report inferred that adjusting 12 risk factors, which incorporate others like schooling and gloom at midlife, could decrease dementia occurrence by as much as 40%,” said first creator Song E. Franz, Ph.D., teacher of psychiatry and co-overseer of the Middle for Conduct Hereditary Qualities of Maturing.
“That report found that ambient air pollution was more likely to cause Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias that are related to it than diabetes, inactivity, high blood pressure, drinking alcohol, or being overweight. Our discoveries highlight the significance of distinguishing modifiable endanger factors as right off the bat in life as could really be expected — and that the cycles by which air contamination influences endangerment for some other time in life mental deterioration starts sooner than past examinations recommend.”
More information: Carol E. Franz et al, Associations Between Ambient Air Pollution and Cognitive Abilities from Midlife to Early Old Age: Modification by APOE Genotype, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (2023). DOI: 10.3233/JAD-221054
