More Evidence Air Pollution Raises the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

Living near a busy roadway may raise your risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

A new study finds people exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution have more amyloid plaques in their brains.

Amyloid plaques are abnormal protein clusters that disrupt brain cell function and are a hallmark sign of Alzheimer’s.

Researchers examined brain tissue from 224 people who donated their brains to dementia research at death.

They compared the results to traffic-related air pollution levels at their home addresses and found people exposed to higher levels of fine particulate matter from traffic had significantly more amyloid plaques.

The strongest association between air pollution and Alzheimer’s was among patients who did not have the main Alzheimer’s gene.

One author says, “This suggests that environmental factors such as air pollution could be a contributing factor to Alzheimer’s in patients in which the disease cannot be explained by genetics.”

She says more research is needed to understand the role poor air quality plays in dementia risk.