Submitted via IRC for chromas
Declining dementia rates may be due to generational differences in lifetime lead exposure
To the medical community's surprise, several studies from the US, Canada, and Europe suggest a promising downward trend in the incidence and prevalence of dementia. Important risk factors for dementia, such as mid-life obesity and mid-life diabetes, have been increasing rapidly, so the decline in dementia incidence is particularly perplexing.
A new hypothesis by University of Toronto Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, suggests that the declining dementia rates may be a result of generational differences in lifetime exposure to lead. U of T pharmacy student ZhiDi (Judy) Deng, co-authored the article.
While the negative impact of lead exposure on the IQ of children is well-known, less attention has been paid to the cumulative effects of a lifetime of exposure on older adults' cognition and dementia. Given previous levels of lead exposure, we believe further exploration of the of this hypothesis is warranted."
Fuller Thomson, director of the Institute of Life Course and Aging and professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
[...] The authors suggest that next steps to assess the validity of this hypothesis could include: comparing 1990s assessment of blood lead levels to current Medicare records, assessing lead levels in teeth and tibia bones (which serve as proxies for life-time exposure) when conducting post-mortems of brains for dementia, and examining the association between particular gene variants associated with higher lead uptake and dementia incidence.
"If lifetime lead exposure is found to be a major contributor to dementia, we can expect continued improvements in the incidence of dementia for many more decades as each succeeding generation had fewer years of exposure to the neurotoxin," says Deng.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @07:03AM (2 children)
Who says? They didn't look at Runaway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @03:02PM
That's just crazy talk. Runaway is just as sane as ... well ... never mind.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @07:23PM
They did. That's how they know we have much less dementia now.
(Score: 2) by deimios on Friday December 20 2019, @11:30AM (1 child)
Well I dunno, the older generations who fought in the world wars and were exposed to lead didn't live long enough to get dementia. Depends on the concentration and velocity I guess...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Freeman on Friday December 20 2019, @04:09PM
Quite true, but in that case lead was even more harmful.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by barbara hudson on Friday December 20 2019, @11:36AM (4 children)
There's a woman who's living in long term care. She's 102, mind sharp as a tack, but physically on the decline. Sight, hearing, mobility all shot. She's bored with her life, such as it is, and wants out. And who can blame her. She knows that what time she has left is utterly useless to herself , never mind others. A bit of cognitive decline would be welcome in a sense. When you have nothing to look forward to then assisted suicide is a logical choice. The other option is to starve yourself to death, which some people have done.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RS3 on Friday December 20 2019, @02:54PM
> A bit of cognitive decline would be welcome in a sense.
I understand your sentiment, but the brain damage from various dementias doesn't always manifest in a gentle way. Some people become very angry, combative, major physical outbursts, etc. And then some develop Lewy Body Dementia https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lewy-body-dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352025 [mayoclinic.org], like Robin Williams, who killed himself.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 20 2019, @03:03PM (2 children)
Oh no! Have you even seen people with dementia? How happy they were if left without heavy drugs? Majority go to the most horrible place they ever were in their lives.
My grandfather went back to German concentration camp and this time he died over there.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Friday December 20 2019, @03:15PM
Be kind to your family - fill out your advanced medical directives and also let them know you've done so.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @08:58PM
Your grandfather allegedly went back to the work camps to get free food and medical treatment. And he allegedly died over there. What disease did he die from?
Was he a gypsy?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday December 20 2019, @11:36AM (4 children)
Lead contributes to dementia, eh? Considering all the other horrible effects of lead, it figures. Maybe it also contributes to authoritarian attitudes, and plays a larger role than anyone imagined in the batshit insanity that currently afflicts the Republican party. Could be one factor in why Republican supporters are older than the average population.
Before leaded gasoline was phased out (by 1985, leaded gasoline was almost all gone except in a few remote places) you could always tell cars that used leaded gasoline from unleaded by looking at the color of the inside of the tailpipe. Unleaded was black, and leaded was tan. Had to be a lot of lead to make such a noticeable color change.
However, regulations are notorious for having major loopholes. In this case the continued use of leaded gasoline was allowed for piston engine aircraft, boats, farm equipment, and race cars. Also, the definition of "unleaded" still allows 0.05 (or 0.001 according to info on Wikipedia) grams of lead additives per gallon. (Gotta love those messed up units of measurement that mix English and metric.) Reason for that is to allow the same infrastructure, in particular, pipelines, to be used for leaded and unleaded gasoline.
If you are wondering if 0.05 grams per gallon is significant, yes, yes it is, very. 50 micrograms of lead per liter of blood is considered the threshold above which lead inflicts mental dysfunction. A busy highway can carry well over 100,000 cars per day. A fleet average of 25 mpg means at least 4000 gallons of fuel being burnt along every mile, every day. Living a minimum of 500 feet from a busy highway was thought to be safe, but maybe not. Seems you ought to live at least 1000 feet away. Also want to be 1km away from airports that serve piston engine aircraft.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday December 20 2019, @02:59PM (2 children)
Everything you said was reasonable except for the part about it having to be a lot of lead to change color. You can make toaster-sized objects look totally gold with micro-plating with only a dollar or two's worth of actual gold. Chemistry doesn't operate on human scales.
It also doesn't take much lead to produce significant neurological effects in developing minds. Parts per billion in atmosphere is more than enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @03:47PM (1 child)
Wait, are you saying all those gold-plated rap stars aren't really rich?
(Score: 4, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @07:27PM
I don't know about rich, but they're definitely no longer alive!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @07:40PM
There's some pretty compelling evidence that lead exposure contributes to crime as well. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @12:15PM (3 children)
So when are they going to publish the study that T.V makes people lose their minds? The study could also mention that most media is owned by (((them))) but such a study will not get published.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday December 20 2019, @04:47PM
It will be released concurrently with the study that
AntiSocial Media is destroying the fabric of civilized society on a global scale.Check back again in one quarter of a galactic rotation for a progress update.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @10:32PM (1 child)
(((go fuck yourself with a telephone pole)))
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 22 2019, @02:10AM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday December 20 2019, @04:48PM (1 child)
Can we expect increased dementia in people who grew up in Flint?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @07:35PM
Absolutely! The primary exposure routes are ingestion and inhalation. So obviously drinking the shit is not good.
Lead and Growth [nih.gov]
Childhood exposure is alreeady known to cause all sorts of lifelong problems. Now we can add going senile early to that list.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21 2019, @01:30AM
So, do we need a major program to find a way of editing the lead out of our bodies?