Link to original story appearing in Medicalxpress
According to Professor Andreas Kortenkamp, of Brunel University "An increasing body of science shows a neglect of mixture effects can cause chemical risks to be underestimated". Regulators have long operated under the assumption that if the concentration of each chemical in a mixture does not exceed the recommended exposure limits, that risk for toxicity is low. But, when chemicals share common mechanisms of action they can produce additive or synergistic effects even at exposure leaves below current regulatory limits. The logic behind additive and synergistic effects on the central nervous system is best exemplified by the consequences of drinking alcohol after ingesting benzodiazepines. Since both chemicals act to enhance inhibitory neurotransmission, their combined effect on behavior and consciousness will be greater than that which occurs the same dose of either chemical alone. Physicians and toxicologists who work in Emergency Departments are well aware of this type of interaction. So why can't those involved in creating regulatory policies for chemical constituents of paints, solvents, and pesticides create policies that anticipate these same risks? The answer may be due in part to the fact that unlike alcoholic beverage and benzodiazepines, industrial solvents and pesticides are "not intended for human consumption" and because proper industrial hygiene practices are expected to be sufficient to reduced exposure to levels below the current occupational exposure limits.
Link to original story appearing in Medicalxpress
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Dr. Marcia Ratner, discusses the role neurotoxic chemical exposures play in creating neurodiverse conditions, and gives tips on prevention and treatment options.
Link to Blog Post at DifferentBrains.org
Changes in gene expression induced by paraquat and maneb implicated in risk for Parkinson's disease7/2/2018 Ana Sandoiu reports in Medical News Today on her interview with Dr. Scott Ryan whose research is focused on investigating why some people develop Parkinson's disease while other do not," According to Dr. Ryan, "People with a predisposition for Parkinson's disease are more affected by these low-level exposures to agrochemicals and therefore more likely to develop the disease."
He and his colleagues used human cells to study the role of two pesticides, paraquat and maneb, in Parkinson's disease. They found that the levels of these toxic chemicals that impaired the cells in their model were below those deemed safe by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggesting that the EPA's guidelines for paraquat and maneb should be re-evaluated. Link to original story in Medical News Today ABC News is reporting on new research from Kristine Yaffe, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, show that head injuries leading to a mild concussion or mild traumatic brain injury are associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease. This new data expands on that from previous research which has found between that moderate to severe traumatic brain injury are associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease.
We have always included questions about a patients history of head injury and loss of consciousness in our questionnaires designed to assess for associations between exposure to chemicals and age at onset of neurodegernative diseases such as Parkinson's. We believe that head injuries like chemical exposures can modify the subclinical course of neurodegenerative diseases to thereby alter age at onset of overt symptoms and therefore, must be considered in the differential diagnosis. Link to story at ABC News The DailyMail is reporting on the release of a new smartphone from CAT that has an on-board air sensor made by the Sensirion. The new phone can detect Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) commonly found in paints, solvents, carpets, furniture and cleaning products. This phone is a potential game changer for anyone at risk of occupational or environmental exposures to VOCs. The data these phones can detect could potentially be used in future research aimed at understanding the role of neurotoxic VOCs in age-related neurodegenerative diseases as well.
Link to original story in DailyMail Link to CAT website The WKU Herald is reporting a story about ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox whose research looking at the Ogimi people of rural Japan, suggests that a diet high in the amino acid L-serine may provide neuroprotection and even delay Alzheimer’s disease onset until very late in life. According to Cox “If we dose early, we can push off Alzheimer’s until you’re 115 to 120 years old,” According to the article, the "standard Ogimi diet consists of various types of seaweed, tofu and pork, and is the highest diet ever measured in L-serine". So should you load up on L-serine? Not so fast, but you may want to follow the clinical trials that are underway at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Link to original story on WKU Herald website. Link to FDA website for clinical Trial An association between cadmium exposure and cognitive deficits in mice has been reported by Wang an colleagues. Exposure to cadmium was associated with impaired performance on hippocampus-dependent learning and memory tasks. An association between urinary cadmium levels and AD risk in human subjects has previously been reported by Peng and colleagues. Peng and colleagues suggested that toxicological studies were need to further elucidate their findings in humans. This new study in mice lends support to the hypothesis that there could be an interaction between these two factors shown to influence cognitive performance.
Link to Peng et al, 2017 Link to Wang et al, 2018 An article by Denis Thompson of Daily Health News which appears this month on WebMd calls our attention to the unfortunate fact that despite the billions of dollars and years of time spent on research, medical science has still not discovered any way to prevent or stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Many genes and proteins have been implicated in the disease and yet none of these has been found to be a druggable target suitable for effective disease prevention. The good news is that exercise and lifestyle changes may at least help to slow disease progression and delay onset.
Link to story on WedMD The results of a new study by Gigante and colleagues (2017) published in the journal Parkinsonism & Related Disorders indicates that smoking is associated with an older in age-at-onset of motor signs in patients with Parkinson's disease. These new findings are consistent with our own also showing an older age at onset of PD among ever smokers (see Ratner et al. 2014). These data provide additional support for the hypothesis that exposure to chemicals can modify the progression of PD to influence age at onset of the disease.
Link to original article in PubMed Neurology Advisor is reporting on recent findings by Rooney and colleagues published in the journal Neurology which suggest that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) provides protection against ALS. This large case control study investigated subjects from Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands. It is important to recognize that the most common form of HRT currently in use contains conjugated equine estrogens. Animal models suggest that estradiol (E2) provides neuroprotection (Groeneveld et al., 2004). Future studies will be needed to ascertain if E2 provides greater neuroprotection than estrone (E1) in female human subjects.
Link to original story in Neurology Advisor Link to citation in Pubmed |
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