Alzheimer's Risk Increased Due To Environmental Neurotoxin

For the first time in history, it was found that Alzheimer’s risk increased due to environmental neurotoxin in both humans and primates subjected to testing. The neurodegenerative disease is on the rise, and it’s believed to be caused by two factors. One is age and the other is the advancement in medicine which allows for quicker and more accurate testing.

BMAA found in algae and seafood

However, it appears that scientists have found the first environmental factor which can prompt the disease later in life. According to a team of researchers, the toxin beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) was found in a common species of algae, along with several types of seafood. The damaging compound has been discovered in French mussels, oysters, and other types of edible creatures that dwell in the sea.

It doesn’t even have to reach humans directly. The plants can enter the food chain easily after being ingested by fish. Experts are warning that BMAA can increase the risk of certain brain diseases, such as dementia, ALS, or Alzheimer’s.

Their assessment arrives after examining the brain tangles and amyloid plaques in the brains of people who died from the disease in Guam. The potentially damaging BMAA was first tracked down to the Pacific Island in 1967, and recent tests have shown that it can create Alzheimer’s-like effects on the brain. The researchers conducted an experiment on monkeys, dividing them in groups and testing the consequences of BMAA exposure.

Effects took place in less than 5 months

They conducted the trials on vervets, a species of primates, where one group was fed a diet rich in BMAA, another a smaller amount of BMAA, the third an equal amount of BMAA and L-serine, and the fourth posed as a control group on a fruit diet. Around 140 days later, the researchers examined their results. They found that monkes who were served food rich in BMAA presented with neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques deposits, both of which are indicative of Alzheimer’s.

According to co-author fo the study, Deborah Mash, the study proves the cause-and-effect relationship between BMAA and neurodegenerative diseases. The deposits that grew into the monkeys’ brains were similar to those of the Pacific Islanders in Guam who died from the Alzheimer’s-like condition. Paul Cox stated that they have, thus, found a potentially “very worrying” third factor that might increase the risk of such life-crippling conditons.

And, unfortunately, the neurotoxin is found in a very common type of algae and certain types of seafood.

Further exposure to BMAA can enhance the worldwide’s population risk of developing dementia, Alzheimer’s, or ALS. Without a cure to the disease, it will increase numbers. That makes every bit of information crucial for the millions of people who will be diagnosed in the future.

Image source: johanpaul.com

About the Author

About Cliff Jenkins Scott

Cliff likes to describe himself as made for the hard road. Freelancing is taking off across the world. And yet, valuable opportunities are hard to find he thinks, particularly when it comes to writing. After graduating with an MA degree in Communication as a major and Technology and Writing as minors, Cliff decided to give his own website hosting creative writing a boost and engage in an overwhelming number of projects, all of them focused on writing. He didn’t look for a quick burnout, but his eagerness to learn as much as possible as rapidly as possible kept him going.

figs

“The neurodegenerative disease is on the rise, and it’s believed to be caused by two factors. One is age and the other is the advancement in medicine which allows for quicker and more accurate testing.” This sentence is ambiguous, and leads to the interpretation that the disease is caused by the advancement of testing. Shabby.
- Daisy Hooley
  
  I had to read that several times too!
  - thecrud
    
    If you could not comprehend that on the first shot, you should quit reading it is not your thing.
    - figs
      
      Try parsing it again. It clearly says the DISEASE is caused by 2 factors. If it’s talking about the REPORTING rising, then how could age be a factor? The older a victim is, the more likely it is to be reported? NO. One of these things does not belong with the others. Age is a factor in the disease, and the better reporting is due to advances in medicine.
- Torgo Torgenson
  
  this is what happens when no one wants to follow basic grammar, punctuation, and spelling. grammar Nazis, come save us!
  - figs
    
    and this isn’t even grammar, it’s logic! If you read it as “The rise is influenced by 2 factors”, then how can age be a factor in the rise? It is a factor in the disease itself.
- John Ostrander
  
  Journalism is dead. Probably why it’s called “media” now, they can hammer us with videos until we are too desensitized to care anymore
- jared
  
  Yeah, he could have written the “documented rate” of the disease is on the rise. However, only literate adults are likely to read this stuff, and can fill in the blanks.
greg

Other than eating sea food, how would BMAA enter the food chain? Is a seaweed by product used as an ingredient in foods,or perhaps in the food containers or perhaps used in say the lining of soda cans. I would have been informative if the author of the article had included this information.
- kjohn034
  
  That is how rumors start. Soda can linings…where the crap did THAT come from?
  I would say that it is probably in the packaging for Tofu for sure and definitely might be in the plastic wrap around salmon at the store.
  See, i can make stuff up too…it’s fun!
Kn Black

Any stats on Alzheimer’s in areas that eat more sea food then other areas where seafood isn’t eaten as much?. Japan should have more occurrences then Nebraska.
- jared
  
  How about Oregon or Maine versus Nebraska?
  Japan introduces other variables.
disqus_EK5K9yb964

Amen. Sentence not ambiguous; it’s wrong. Apparent incidence rise caused by early detection not the disease.
- figs
  
  Exactly Phew. Someone who actually READ that sentence! Nor is the disease itself caused by reporting.
Artoo45

What a bout all the spirulina and blue-green algae the credulous have been gobbling down for the last thirty years in various health fads?
myvoicecounts

I think Alzheimer’s is caused by a definitive lack of proof reading by otherwise talented writers!
- jared
  
  Well, energetic writers. The thing is these free-lancers get paid by the views they generate, not whether they have Strunk and White at the ready.
jared

I am sure Deborah and Paul are quite competent researchers and we should believe their novel results. However, I am a bit old fashioned, I guess, and would like to know their institutional affiliations and terminal degrees.

Cliff is apparently a modern guy and probably sees beyond such detritus, but the rest of us, I think, need some reassurance of expertise.
crabjack

The author also points out that, “BMAA can increase the risk of certain brain diseases, such as dementia, ALS, or Alzheimer’s.” Dementia is not a brain disease. That mistake is not grammar or logic; it’s lack of research.