Prolonged exposure to air pollution can be linked to an elevated risk for serious neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and seems to speed up the pathological process, report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.
Prolonged exposure to air pollution can be linked to an elevated risk for serious neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and seems to speed up the pathological process, report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The study is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.
"We can see a clear association, despite the fact that levels of air pollution in Sweden are lower than in many other countries,” says Jing Wu, researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. “This underlines the importance of improving air quality.”
Motor neuron diseases (MNDs) are serious neurological diseases in which the nerve cells that govern voluntary movement become so degraded that they stop working, leading to muscle atrophy and paralysis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is the most common type, accounting for around 85 to 90 per cent of cases.
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