Link between air pollution, Parkinson’s disease discovered
Washington DC (ANI): Researchers found that people who live in places with average levels of air pollution are 56 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those who live in areas with the lowest levels of air pollution. . The study, which will be published in Neurology – the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology – sought to explore national and geographic patterns of Parkinson’s disease, as well as test national and region-specific connections with fine particulate matter. . “Previous studies have shown that particulates cause inflammation in the brain, a known mechanism by which Parkinson’s disease can develop,” said Brittany Krzyzanowski, PhD, a researcher at the Barrow Neurological Institute who led the study. .
“Using state-of-the-art geospatial analytical techniques, we were able to confirm, for the first time, a strong nationwide association between incident Parkinson’s disease and fine particulate matter in the US.” The study also found that the association between air pollution and Parkinson’s disease is not the same in every part of the country, and varies in strength by region. The Mississippi-Ohio River Valley was identified as a Parkinson’s disease hotspot along with central North Dakota, parts of Texas,
Kansas, eastern Michigan, and the tip of Florida. People living in the western part of the US have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than people in the rest of the country. “Area differences in Parkinson’s disease may reflect regional differences in the composition of particulate matter,” Krzyzanowski said. “Some areas may have particulate matter containing more toxic components than others.” Although the authors have not yet explored the various sources of air pollution, Krzyzanowski says that road network density is relatively high in the Mississippi-Ohio River Valley and that the Rust Belt is also part of the region. “This means that pollution in these areas may include excess combustion particles from traffic and heavy metals from manufacturing that have been linked to cell death in the part of the brain involved in Parkinson’s disease,” Krzyzanowski said. The population-based geographic study identified approximately 90 thousand people with Parkinson’s disease from a Medicare dataset of approximately 22 million.
People diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease were geocoded based on neighborhood of residence, which helped researchers calculate the rate of Parkinson’s disease in each area. The average annual concentration of fine particles in these specific areas was also calculated. After adjusting for other risk factors, including age, sex, race, smoking history and use of medical care, the Barrow researchers were able to identify an association between a person’s past exposure to fine particles and their risk of later developing Parkinson’s disease. Were capable. “Such population-based geographic studies have the potential to re०.०.veal important insights into the role of environmental toxins in the development and progression of Parkinson’s,” Krzyzanowski said, and also applied these methods to explore other neurological health outcomes. May go.” Researchers hope that data from this new study will help implement stricter policies that will reduce air pollution levels and reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease and other related diseases. “Despite years of research identifying environmental risk factors for Parkinson’s disease, most efforts have focused on pesticide exposure,” Krzyzanowski said. “This study shows that we should also look at air pollution as a contributor to the development of Parkinson’s disease.” (ANI)
