The study found a massive increase in "silent strokes" for people over 60 who live in high-pollution areas, meaning that pollution damages our brains a lot more than we think.
Air pollution is more than just unpleasant: it’s dangerous to your brain, a new study has found.
Breathing polluted air everyday ends up altering a person’s brain in ways that could lead to permanent damage, according to a Live Science report.
A total of 943 healthy adults older than 60 were examined for the study, which focused on the New England region. The researchers used an MRI to look at the brain structures of the participants and compare them with the air pollution levels where they lived to see if they could spot differences in people who lived in areas with higher pollution.
They found that an increase in pollution of 2 micrograms per cubic meters can lead to a 0.32 percent reduction in brain volume, which is about the same as aging one year.
The same increase in pollution was also linked to a significant increase — 46 percent — in the risk of “silent strokes,” which cause no symptoms but can result in lower cognitive function and even dementia.
People who lived in areas with high pollution had smaller brain volumes and were at a much greater risk of these silent strokes than those who did not, according to the study’s findings.
It is the first study that has dived into air pollution and brain volume to determine if there is a relationship. Previous studies look at that relationship in children, but not in the aging.
Why does air pollution do this? Scientists aren’t sure, but believe it could be from inflammation of the brain.
The study could lead to breakthroughs in understanding the link between pollution and brain damage. It was published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
