Linking Alzheimer's to environmental contributors

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/46950

Scientists have known for more than 40 years that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats and a threat to the environment. Now researchers at Rutgers University say exposure to DDT, banned in the United States since 1972 but still used as a pesticide in other countries, may also increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer's disease in some people, particularly those over the age of 60.

In a study published online today in JAMA Neurology, Rutgers scientists discuss their findings in which levels of DDE, the chemical compound left when DDT breaks down, were higher in the blood of late-onset Alzheimer's disease patients compared to those without the disease.

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DDT — used in the United States for insect control in crops and livestock and to combat insect-borne diseases like malaria — was introduced as a pesticide during WWII. Rutgers scientists — the first to link a specific chemical compound to Alzheimer's disease — believe that research into how DDT and DDE may trigger neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, is crucial.

"I think these results demonstrate that more attention should be focused on potential environmental contributors and their interaction with genetic susceptibility," says Jason R. Richardson, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI). "Our data may help identify those that are at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and an improved outcome."

FULL story at link.

[KT2000]

1. they already know

that we are blanketed with tons of neurological poisons - many of them pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. They have known this for decades. There has also been a willful effort to stop neurological testing for chemicals. Those who study environmental health have known that this was very likely - with more than DDT implicated.

Now that we are facing the consequences of corporate control of safety testing, how long before others are examined? DDT was banned in 1972 and the others are still available and still under patent protection. So never. There will just be more buildings to house the damaged.