The Environmental Influences on Cognitive Disease

The influences researched include common dietary patterns and toxic chemical exposures, along with insufficient exercise and stress. Some of the key environmental factors found to generate risk in the study were lead, air pollution, and pesticides. Exposure to each was found to greatly increase the risk of developing a cognitive disease. And it’s now believed that these influences can begin having an impact as early as the womb and be carried through life, eventually developing into a neurodegenerative disease.

Report co-author Jill Stein, MD, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, says:

"As we explored origins and patterns of chronic degenerative diseases, we discovered a web of conditions in the environment – including nutritional, chemical, physical and social factors – that have a direct influence on the risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and related chronic diseases. It is clear from these findings that our activities in the areas of food and agriculture, energy, chemical use, and social organization are key drivers in the abnormal loss of neurological function in older people throughout the modern world."

The report also finds that nutrition and diet have a sizable impact on the contraction of cognitive diseases—for instance, saturated fat intake have been found to greatly increase the risk of dementia. Infant soy formula, and formulas heavily fortified with iron were also found to be possible contributors.

Unhealthy Environments Can Cause Cellular Alteration
One of the most interesting findings was that these environmental factors are causing an alteration in biochemical pathways at cellular and subcellular levels—and that these physical alterations can lead to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. According to the report, “This collection of diseases is being driven by dramatic alterations over the past 50 to 100 years in the U.S. food supply, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, and exposure to toxic chemicals.”