Air pollution 'causes brain injury'RSS Feed

Air pollution can cause brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and conditions of the central nervous system, new findings show.

Scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Campus found that when air pollution comes into contact with the brain, it activates the innate immune response and increases the chance of the inflammation seen in many brain injury conditions.

Researcher Michelle Block said that while air pollution has long been known to cause cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and mortality, the negative effect it has on the brain has only recently been proven.

"Air pollution has been implicated as a chronic source of neuroinflammation and reactive oxygen species that produce neuropathology and central nervous system disease," she continued.

Meanwhile, scientists from Harvard University found that individuals with lighter hair are more likely to develop Parkinson's in old age.

Categorising hair colour as black, brown, blonde and red, it was found that those with black hair were least likely to develop the neurodegenerative disease and those with red were most likely to do so.

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Posted by Matthew Heap
 

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