PM2.5 Pollution Linked to Brain Atrophy and Memory Decline

A University of Southern California (USC) study published in Brain suggests women 70 to 80 years old who received higher doses of air pollution suffered greater declines in memory performance and had more Alzheimer's disease incidence than those who breathed cleaner air, reports WorldHealth.net . The researchers analyzed data on 998 women aged 73 to 87 who had up to two brain scans five years apart as part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health's Women's Health Initiative. The investigators also gathered data on where the women lived and environmental information from those locations to calculate exposure to PM2.5 fine particle pollution. A connection between higher exposure to this pollution and brain changes and memory problems was discovered, after accounting for other factors like income, education, race, geographic region, and history of smoking. "This study provides another piece of the Alzheimer's disease puzzle by identifying some of the brain changes linking air pollution and memory decline," said USC Professor Andrew Petkus." Each research study gets us one step closer to solving the Alzheimer's disease epidemic."