How To Increase Your Dementia Risk By 17%

First, let us be completely honest: the headline is a little misleading, because actually you can use this hack to increase your dementia risk much more than 17% 🙂

But the 17% figure did come from somewhere, and we will explain:

Every breath you take?

Researchers (Dr. Clare Rogowski et al.) investigated the effect of air pollution on dementia incidence, and found:

In few words: chronic exposure to air pollution significantly increases the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and especially vascular dementia.

In more detail:

• For every 10 μg/m³ increase of PM2.5 (tiny particles from traffic, industry, wood burning, and construction), dementia risk rises by 17%.
• For every 10 μg/m³ increase of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (mainly from fossil fuel combustion and vehicle exhausts) dementia risk rises by 3%.

So, the 17% figure is tied to a 10 μg/m³ increase in PM2.5, whereas in fact, there is (for practical purposes) no cap on how high the PM2.5 levels can go. If, for example, you get a 100 μg/m³ increase, that’s a 175% dementia risk increase.

Why this happens: it’s not known for 100% sure, but it is currently believed that the pollutants trigger brain inflammation and oxidative stress directly or via circulation, damaging cells, proteins, and DNA.

You can read the paper here: Long-term air pollution exposure and incident dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis ← this is a very good study; it’s a systematic review and meta-analysis of 51 studies covering nearly 30 million people (34 studies in the meta-analysis) from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia

What this means for you, in practical terms

Statistically, you (dear reader) probably do not spend your days directing traffic on a busy intersection, you are probably not a chimney sweep, and nor do you probably work in heavy industry. So… Does this matter to you, really?

And yes, yes it does.

For example, approximately half of 10almonds readers are currently breathing air with dangerously high pollution levels. We can say that with reasonable confidence, as most of our readers live in the US, and about half of the population of the US live in places with pollution levels higher than those deemed safe by the government, and let’s face it, governments usually look to set those levels higher than would be ideal, because they don’t want to look like they’re failing, so badly and on such a huge scale, to meet their own targets.

The worst places, per a recent report, were:

1. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.
2. Visalia, Calif.
3. Fresno-Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.
4. Eugene-Springfield, Ore.
5. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.
6. Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, Mich.
7. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.
8. Houston-Pasadena, Texas
9. Cleveland-Akron-Canton, Ohio
10. Fairbanks-College, Ark.

…but as we say, nearly half the US population lives in somewhere with “unsafe” levels.

You can read more about that, here: Why Your Air Is Probably Worse Quality Than You Think

And, about those “safe” levels? Air considered “safe” per existing environmental standards, isn’t

So, the safest readers will be those who live in rural places, but rural places that also have no major industry (agriculture is a major industry).

Well, that sucks, but what can we do about it?

Aside from the “concerned citizen” angle (i.e. whatever may be done to encourage a reduction of pollution), on an individual level the options are few, but meaningful.

One option, a good one, is wearing a mask in places where you know there will be highest levels of pollution (city centers, for example, or other places with more fumes), whether or not you can detect it (i.e. seeing/smelling it in the air), you know it is there.

You might be wondering whether N95 masks (the most-recommend kind vs COVID) will help here, when it comes to the sizes of the particles in question.

The answer is that PM2.5 particles are (by definition) around 2.5 microns, and N95 masks do, by definition, filter 95% of air pollutants of that size (including PM2.5 particles, against which they are specifically tested) or larger.

If you want more protection you can get N99, N100, or P100, but many find breathing in those less comfortable, so there’s a trade-off in that regard.

The other option, and better for when you are at home, is getting an air purifier.

This is important, because: You May Have More Air Pollution In Your Home Than In The Street

You can also learn more about that, here: What’s Lurking In Your Household Air?

At time of writing, here’s an example product on Amazon that currently has 80% off and 4.9 stars average review 😎

…but of course, feel free to shop around; you might find a device you prefer.

Take care!