DDT exposure linked to Alzheimer’s disease

The question is: how about millions of other artificial materials being used for so many years?
Even the conclusion of the research is just a "maybe".
We human beings actually know our nature too little, but are always too greedy to get more than we should...

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DDT – used in the United States for insect control, and to combat vector-borne diseases such as malaria – was introduced as a pesticide during WWII.

According to a January 27 news release from Rutgers University, researchers at the academic institution have found that exposure to the pesticide DDT – banned in the US in 1972, although still used as a pesticide in other nations – may increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer’s disease, especially in individuals over age 60.  In a study recently published in JAMA Neurology, Rutgers scientists present their findings in which levels of DDE, the chemical compound that remains when DDT breaks down, were higher in the blood of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to those without the disease.

DDT – used in the United States for insect control, and to combat vector-borne diseases such as malaria – was introduced as a pesticide during WWII.  The Rutgers scientists believe it is essential to look into how DDT and DDE may cause neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

“I think these results demonstrate that more attention should be focused on potential environmental contributors and their interaction with genetic susceptibility,” said 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.”

In spite of the decrease in levels of DDT and DDE in the United States over the last three decades, the pesticide is still found in 75 to 80 percent of the blood samples collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a national health and nutrition survey.  Scientists posit that this occurs because the chemical can take decades to break down in the environment.  Additionally, people may be exposed to the pesticide by consuming imported fruits, vegetables, and grains where DDT is still being used, in addition to eating fish from polluted waterways.

74 of the 86 Alzheimer’s patients (average age of 74) involved in the Rutgers University-Emory University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center-University of Texas Southwestern Medical School’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center study had DDE blood levels nearly four times higher than the 79 people in the control group who did not have Alzheimer’s disease.

Patients with a type of ApoE gene (ApoE4), which greatly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and high blood levels of DDE displayed even more severe cognitive impairment than did those patients without the risk gene.  Brain cell studies also revealed that DDT and DDE amplified the amount of a protein associated with plaques believed to be a trademark of Alzheimer’s disease.
http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/ddt-exposure-linked-to-alzheimers-disease/