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August 2014 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
in the
By Angela S. Hoover, Staff Writer
Air Pollution and Autism
A June study published in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives
by scientists from the University of
Rochester in New York describes how
exposure to air pollution early in life
produces harmful changes in the brains
of mice. Specifically, that air pollution
causes inflammation that damages
the development of white matter in
the brain. These changes include an
enlargement of part of the brain that is
seen in humans who have autism and
schizophrenia. The mice performed
poorly in tests of short-term memory,
learning ability and impulsivity. Study
authors say the findings are very
suggestive that air pollution may play
a role in autism, as well as in other
neurodevelopmental disorders. These
findings are consistent with several other
recent studies showing a link between
air pollution and autism in children,
such as a 2013 JAMA Psychiatry study
showing children who lived in areas with
high levels of traffic-related air pollution
during their first year of life were three
times as likely to develop autism. The
researchers used polluted air made
up of ultra-fine particles, which are
believed to be more dangerous because
they are small enough to get deep into
the lungs and into the bloodstream.
The researchers likened the level of air
pollution used to that which would be
encountered driving the freeways of
Los Angeles or Atlanta. Per the CDC,
1.5 percent of American children have
autism; this is a 30 percent increase
from 2012. Nearly half of the 300
million people in the U.S. live in areas
deemed to have unhealthy air quality
per the American Lung Association. Air
pollution worsened between 2010 and
2012, but it is much cleaner than it was
a decade ago when autism diagnoses
peaked. After rates surged in the 1990s,
they peaked in 2004 and have held
steady since, per the journal BMJ Open.
Self-Healing Tooth
Treatment For Decay?
Researchers at King’s College
London are working on a device for a
tooth decay treatment that would fix
cavities without the need for drilling
and fillings. The two-step process, called
Electrically Accelerated and Enhanced
Remineralisation (EAER), uses an
electric current that spurs decayed teeth
to repair themselves. “The way we treat
teeth today is not ideal,” said professor
Nigel Pitts of King College’s London
Dental Institute in June. “When we
repair a tooth by putting in a filling,
that tooth enters a cycle of drilling and
refilling as, ultimately, each ‘repair’
fails.” Instead of numbing an area with
an injection, drilling down the decayed
part of the tooth and inserting resin, this
method accelerates the processes in the
natural tooth cycle. This procedure is
similar to another noninvasive technique
announced by the Harvard School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences in
May. That method uses a low-power
light to trigger dental stem cells to repair
teeth by forming the chief ingredient
dentin. EAER will likely not work on
cavities and decay that are too far gone
and it cannot physically regrow a tooth.
EAER could be brought to the market in
less than three years.
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