Air Pollution and Alzheimer’s: grim news

We’ve written a lot about air pollution over the years (LSS passim) Mainly to say that air pollution, particularly in the form of PM_2.5 particles can do all sorts of harm to your lungs and circulatory systems. A fact well-attested by some of the sharpest medical minds on the planet as this WHO report shows[1] But now there is increasing evidence that these pesky particles may play a big part in the massive wave of dementia and neurodegenerative disease that is sweeping across the world. The latest evidence is summarised by Professor Eef Hogervorst for The Conversation.[2] And it’s pretty grim.

Air pollution and the deadly particles it chucks out are associated with all kinds of activities beloved of certain US politicians and their followers. Fossil fuels; road transport; old style heavy industries; good ol’ boys roun’ the barbecue fire, and that sort of thing. But how do you measure it, and separate out other plausible causes? A rather nifty US study started by mapping Medicare claims for dementia by postcode and PM _2.5 particle density. Other factors such as smoking, bad diets and poverty were also considered. The latter was admirably controlled by factoring in Medicaid eligibility, a sure indicator of low wealthin the US. We often use the phrase Killer Quote here: this time it’s more than a rhetorical flourish

…….pollution levels in the areas studied were, on average, about twice as high as the limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO). ………..The researchers found that the increased Alzheimer’s risk in polluted areas remained even after taking high blood pressure, stroke and depression into account

Eef goes on to explain how and why PMs are pulverising your grey matter: but click on! For she does it much better than we ever could.

And our thoughts, gentle readers? Firstly, the work confirms other reports we’ve noticed [3] Secondly the impressive size of the sample. Above all the careful attempts to control other factors such as diet and poverty; we know you prefer thoughtful scholarship over blind jumping to conclusions. Nothing is yet conclusive: but the hypothesis that air pollution causes other forms of dementia fits the available data so very much more closely than anything else does seems to us to be as close to one as you can get.

[1] WHO global air quality guidelines: particulate matter (‎PM2.5 and PM10)‎, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide

[2] https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-may-directly-contribute-to-alzheimers-disease-new-study-275873?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%2%5B2%5D

[3] The effect of ambient air pollution (PM2.5) on dementia risk | Nature Aging

#air pollution #fossil fuels #smoke #alzheimers #dementia #WHO #health #medicine

How a frozen bacterium might stop the great ESKAPE

For microbiologists the great ESKAPE is not an old film on the telly at Christmas. It’s a classification of the six most deadly antibiotic resistant bacteria which they work with. These are of course: Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp.In other words, the bacteria that most effectively “escape” the effects of antibiotics, and thus sit at the heart of our current global antimicrobial‑resistance crisis. Now hope that they might be controlled is emerging from the icy caves of the Carpathian Mountains. And you might be forgiven for thinking that at first sight it actually makes things worse.

Because frozen in the ancient soil of Carpathian caves lies a bacteria with the snappy name Psychrobacter SC65A.3 -and it’s no less than 5,500 years old. We we’ve got two covers for you today: one in Spanish from that excellent newspaper El País by Miguel Ángel Criado and one from the Mail by Shivali Best. Both wax eloquent on its dangers: it seems resistant to at least a dozen of the best-known antibiotics. But here’s the rub: the same evolutionary toughness which let it develop these remarkable powers of resistance has also let it develop remarkable powers as an enemy of other bacteria. Including many of those on our ESKAPE list.

The natural tendency of people is to look at the scary side of anything: and thereby jump to the worst possible conclusions. We know that our readers are the ones who suspend belief a little longer, and always look deeper. In the long run that’s the only type of thinking that will release us from the antibiotics resistance crisis. And many others

[1] Hallada una bacteria helada hace 5.000 años capaz de plantar cara a superpatógenos | Ciencia | EL PAÍS

[2] Prehistoric killer superbug discovered in 5,000-year-old ice is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics, study warns | Daily Mail Online

#antibiotic resistance #microbiology #medicine #health #bacteria #ESKAPE

Narco Warriors: brilliant new podcast on the war that’s shaped two centuries

Photo by Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs on Pexels.com

We’ve always been pretty much against the illegal drugs trade, if that is still a safe thing to say. For its reach and power give it the heft of many a nation. Its turnover is estimated to be between $300-$600 billion per year. If you throw in all the deaths-from assassinations, associated diseases and economic disruption, then these at 500 000 a year are more than many nations’ mortality statistics. And like any State, it has organised armed soldiers, trained and ready to kill. No wonder so much effort has gone in to controlling the sale and distribution of illegal drugs since the nineteenth century. when the Chinese attempted to control the illegal importation of opium. Narco Warriors, a podcast series from highly experienced journalist Lindsay Charlton is the latest attempt to chronicle the long decades of this deadly and interminable war.

Charlton and his team of researchers have assembled hardened veterans of the war-customs officers, investigators, police officers- as well as those who operate in its shadowy intelligence led nooks and corners. The listener is taken on a vast sweep of lands and seas, of shootings, confrontations, agency turf wars and many earnest intelligent brave people trying to do the best jobs they can for their countries. And we salute them, above all for their endless dedication to the public good: for its clear that people of this calibre could have made a lot more money a lot more safely in many other walks of life. And there we might end it. Except for one thought, which that old Devil has just come round and whispered into our ear.

What is a drug anyway? If you say that cannabis, cocaine and heroin are highly dangerous and addictive substances, then you must say the same for alcohol and nicotine. But these are sold openly on the streets in many western countries. Indeed the attempt by the United States to prohibit alcohol from 1919 to 1933 was one of the most unhappy and unsuccessful enterprises which that country ever undertook . For one thing, it was an object lesson in facilitating the rise of violent organised crime, a historical irony not without relevance to present policy. The real problem is that the appetite for cocaine, heroin and alcohol are all driven by human demand. Gangsters are simply those capitalists who supply the illegitimate part and operate according to the same laws of supply and demand as their peers in legal sectors of the economy. As for that demand -there is strong evidence that it is fuelled by rampant economic inequality and the associated poor housing and social and economic insecurity which that entails. In which case the State’s resources would be better spent on building homes, schools and raising the minimum wage rather than on all those flashy speedboats and burly types in uniforms. But: society made its choices long ago, and who are we to call them wrong? If you want to know the consequences of those choices, told by the people who were there, then listen to the first episode [1] And all the subsequent ones of course!

[1]https://audioboom.com/posts/8855552-narco-terrorism-the-forever-war

#drugs #addiction #narcotrafficers #law enforcement #police #transport #smugglingm #opium wars

Food: is it quite as good as you thought?

Food is everywhere these days. Shelves groan with glossy cookbooks, restaurants and gastropubs queue up for tax breaks, and the airwaves are thick with chirpy kitchen‑dwellers—some dropping their aitches with theatrical enthusiasm, others sounding as if they’ve just strolled out of a rowing club bar. Everywhere you look, there’s another beaming evangelist waving a saucepan and assuring us that their latest ‘blend’ is nothing short of a revelation. One could be forgiven for thinking that food itself has become a national moral project, a jolly good thing in which we are all expected to take an interest.

However the readers of our little blog being a thoughtful lot, we thought we’d put up two stories which might provide a little counter-balance to the general merriment. The first from the indefatigable Kat Lay of the Guardian (clearly she knows about more than just antibiotics) does not suggest food is bad per se. But it does suggest that being extremely careful about what you eat, and who is selling to you might be a very good idea[1] Her headline tells you exactly what we mean: Ultra-processed foods should be treated more like cigarettes than food – study

“OK, OK”. you say, “but wot I eat is my choice, innit, guvnor? If I ain’t doin’ no one else no ‘arm, wosser problem?” Well according to Nature Briefing, Eating Well is about more than your health, this might be:

Debates over what to eat — more protein, say, or less ultra-processed food — often neglect any mention of how our food systems affect the biosphere that keeps us alive. But nutrition doesn’t exist in a vacuum, notes Earth-systems scientist Johan Rockström. He co-chaired the latest update to the Planetary Health Diet, which aims to optimize human health globally and reduce environmental and social harms. It notes that “global greenhouse-gas emissions could be cut by 20% by 2050 by eating healthily, reducing food waste and adopting sustainable production practices”, writes Rockström. “If diets remain unchanged, however, emissions will increase by 33%.”Nature | 7 min read
Reference: The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems report

We want humanity to survive, really we do. If you went extinct there would be no one to man the check out tills at supermarkets and we’d have to use those ghastly check-out-yourself tills that are so slow, complicated and inconvenient. Yeah food is alright, sometimes. But as the old saying goes-be careful what you wish for.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/feb/03/public-health-ultra-processed-foods-regulation-cigarettes-addiction-nutrition

#food #nutrition #climate change #obesity #health #fat #protein #fast food #processed food

Two new stories give fresh hope on cancer

Two stories give us hope of real progress in understanding and treating cancer. The first from the excellent Emma Gritt of the Mail [1] concerns the work of the great Dr Mariano Barbacid whose work has been so crucial in elucidating and developing the whole theory of oncogenes and the role they play in cancer. His team has been studying the effects of three drugs on the KRAS gene, deeply implicated in the development of the pancreatic form of the disease. But: don’t read us, read Emma-she knows a lot more than we do

The second story, from the inimitable Ian Sample of the Guardian [2] concerns the application of the Google Deep Mind AI tool to study genetic drivers of cancer-and other diseases too. To quote Ian:

“We see AlphaGenome as a tool for understanding what the functional elements in the genome do, which we hope will accelerate our fundamental understanding of the code of life,” Natasha Latysheva, a DeepMind researcher, told a press briefing on the work.

Once again click!. You’ll get a lot more from Ian than you will from us.

Both stories blend into two of our old LSS favourites. Firstly, the use of AI to look at complex biological patterns which humans alone struggle to perceive. (LSS 1 12 20 et seq) Secondly, that repeatable frequencies in DNA may be tied, probabilistically, to repeatable patterns of symptoms. Veteran readers will recall our hopes that this methodology may apply to psychiatric disorders too: (LSS 18 12 25 and 29 12 25). Of course, we expect to learn of environmental and epigenetic factors as well. But if we are right, these genetic advances may provide a firmer starting point for future investigations than we have now. How much more is achieved when facts are sacrosanct, not convenient entities to be selected and disposed according to the immediate convenience of their user! A lesson which certain US politicians and the news channels which so fanatically support them would do well to learn.

[1] Huge pancreatic cancer breakthrough as scientists achieve ‘permanent disappearance’ of disease with new triple-threat approach tested in lab | Daily Mail Online

[2]Google DeepMind launches AI tool to help identify genetic drivers of disease | Genetics | The Guardian

#AI #deep mind #cancer #genes #DNA #medicine #health #oncogenes #psychiatric disorder #heart disease

Can Cancer really save you from Alzheimer’s? Some great research, but also some caveats

Could having cancer really protect you from Alzheimers? For years epidemiologists have noticed that people who have had cancer — especially certain solid tumours — seem to have a reduced statistical risk of developing Alzheimer’s, but the mechanisms have been unclear. Now an exciting mew study suggests a possible explanation. Some cancer cells overproduce a protein called Cystatin C. This enters the brain where it interacts with the amyloid-β plaques which many researchers associate with the development of Alzheimer’s. Now, we can’t do better than put you onto Nature Briefing Why Cancer and Alzheimer’s don’t mix. and their admirable analysis of a paper that originally appeared in then Journal Cell. It contains all the links and primary source matter you will need. But we’ll make a couple of observations( see below); for that is our wont.

Cystatin C, a protein produced by cancer cells, could partially explain why people who have had cancer have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In a study in mice, researchers found that the protein can infiltrate the brain and bind to the molecules that make up the hallmark brain plaques of Alzheimer’s disease. This interaction draws the attention of immune cells, which then degrade the plaques. If confirmed in humans, the findings could suggest a path toward new therapies for Alzheimer’s, says cancer researcher Jeanne Mandelblatt. Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Cell paper

Firstly the research is obviously tip-top and exciting- regular readers will know our love of an unexpected truth hiding in plain sight . There’s potential here for some really radical treatments for Alzheimer’s and goodness knows what other neurological conditions. However: so far, the work only pertains to mice. That’s usual: but as it scales up to humans, there’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip as the old adage would have it. What’s more, the relationship between cancer and Alzheimer’s is complex and multifactorial — immune system changes, metabolic shifts, treatment effects and environmental and epigenetic factors may all have their say. And Cystatin C itself has been implicated in both protective and harmful processes in the brain, depending on context.

And there is a deeper problem which has nothing to do with the earnest efforts of the researchers but everything to do with the less than acute hominins who surround them and who will read about this in popular daily newspapers and in mediabytes on dubious feeds. Ever prone to believe stories rather than weigh evidence some will conclude that “ a cure for Alzheimer’s has been found!” Others will ignore the old warnings of the logic teachers, ever suspicious of over hasty correlation between cause and effect. Yes, this is exciting research, But cautious people will expect no life changing applications any time soon.

#Cystatin C #cancer #alzheimer’s #neurology #brain #health #medicine

Debra MacKenzie on microplastics-and a master class in balanced reporting

So-are all our bodies full of microplastics, ready to reach out their oily hands and strike us all down with heart disease, tumours and goodness knows what else, or not? It’s a story we’ve covered before (LSS 9 4 24) and to be fair we even approached it with a certain moderation (LSS 12 3 25)

But who are we to advise you, when we can point you at once to the works of science journalist Debra Mackenzie, writing in the Guardian? [1] Not only is the science interesting. She also gets to the heart of why scientific controversies arise. In the case of microplastics, because one lot of researchers (medical folk) are approaching the problem one way. And another lot (analytical chemists) come from somewhere different, with other methodologies And this is ominous: as we have seen time and again, with CFCs, with tobacco and with fossil fuels, there could be interested parties who will be waiting to pounce on those disputes , to use them to allege that the science is not certain, that no action is needed. To quote one of the more chilling passages of Debra’s article

The plastics industry is more powerful than the CFC-makers were, and it has friends who know how to manufacture doubt. (Researchers I spoke to said that their papers have been denounced to journal editors by chemical industry figures who were not analytical experts.)

Now we at LSS are not medical experts. gentle readers. We do not know where the truth lies, although we may suspect. And, as in many scientific debates, there may be actors with differing levels of enthusiasm about where the evidence ultimately points. In any case, you should read Mackenzie’s article. You will learn a great deal more than just about plastics..

[1]https://onlinescientias.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=13505&action=edit

#health #pollution #microplastics #science

Autism: How many types?

Readers will recall the ancient controversy over claims that Autism was caused by the MMR vaccine. We didn’t believe those claims much then, and probably even less so now. But amid all the shouting we think that a point was missed. Is there really a single psychiatric condition called “autism”; or does that word conceal more than one condition lurking underneath?(see also LSS 28 8 25; 15 5 25 et seq)

Michael Marshall examines this question in a wide ranging article for the New Scientist[1] Now : when you do things as well as Marshall and the New Scientist do, you’ve every right to put it behind a paywall. So for those of you who can’t go round we’ll zoom in on two of the more intriguing research projects MIchael discusses, as they also hint at another topic we’ve also covered recently: but see below for that.

Firstly: what really does lie beneath the word autism? In different studies Dr Conor Liston and Dr Natalie Sauerwold were both able to group people with autism into four reliable categories according to the traits which their subjects presented. Unfortunately, the two classifications that each scientist came up with did not always overlap . But both teams were using different techniques: and of course this work is very new. Intriguingly for LSS readers Dr Liston also found

That brain regions with altered circuitry in autistic people……also showed characteristic changes in gene expression……

But being a good journalist , Michael warns us against over interpretation here. Modifications in neural architecture may not be caused solely by underlying genes: they could also be due to the brain re-wiring itself, to compensate for defects in an entirely different region, whose construction is the responsibility of an entirely different set of genes.

Hardened members LSS community will recall our enthusiastic blogs ( LSS 15 12 25; 29 2 25) wherein we discussed the exciting findings which do indeed hint at a demonstrable link between gene frequencies and reliable patterns of behaviour. Neither those findings, nor these ones on autism, are yet conclusive. But they show which way the wind is blowing: and we think it is in a hopeful direction

[1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2509117-what-if-the-idea-of-the-autism-spectrum-is-completely-wrong/

#autism #psychiatric disorder #neurological disorder #genetics

Devi Sridhar on weight loss drugs: another class in careful thinking

If one thing has captured the zeitgeist this year , it’s weight loss drugs. You know the ones like semaglutide which mimic the effects of the hormone GLP-1. Everyone’s talking about them, half of everyone’s thinking of trying them, everyone knows someone who has started a course. Certainly an up-to-the minute, contemporary cutting edge (that’s enough adjectival phrases-ed) blog like LSS cannot afford to ignore them. But what to think? Who has the wisdom, the learning, the cool balanced judgement to advise, consult and warn?

The answer of course is Professor Devi Sridhar, whose sagacious thoughts we have channelled here before (LSS 3 4 25;23 8 24) on matters as diverse as antibiotics and how to read things you find on the Interweb. Writing in the Guardian[1] she presents not only a balanced view of the pros and cons, she acknowledges the complexity of the subject. In this she echoes the methods of another writer we have admired here. Simon Kuper (LSS 28 5 25)

And so she notes the advantages and disadvantages of these new drugs- what happens when you stop taking them? -is one caveat among many which she offers us . She smiles at The incipient war between the pharmaceutical companies who want to flog you these things, and the vast food and catering industries who want to flog you things which will make you fat. And above all the awful dilemma faced by decent rational people such as the World Health Organisation. Who know the real problem of obesity is rooted in poverty, ignorance, conspicuous consumption and other cultural tropes which reveal such unflattering truths about humanity. But who nevertheless have come to feel, reluctantly, that the new drugs offer the only practicable solution to the epidemic of obesity that threatens public health world wide. Amd perhaps this is the clearest cognitive lesson of all which she offers. For it echoes the doctrine of the great John Maynard Keynes who stated: “when the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir?”

A worthy doctrine for Whigs, rationalists and progressives of all shades, everywhere.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/31/world-health-organization-anti-obesity-jabs-2025?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[2]https://uk.news.yahoo.com/weight-loss-jabs-conditionally-backed-135200252.html

#obesity #public health #weight loss #poverty #lifestyle

LSS v The Guardian: Clash of the Titans. And the battleground is antibiotics

Readers of LSS, we present today a true clash of titans: us versus the popular daily newspaper The Guardian. For they have just published a leader article on antibiotics progress which takes an altogether different view to our own sunnily optimistic piece (LSS 18 12 25) about humanity’s general progress in solving the problem of antibiotic resistance. [1]

Avid readers will recall our effort well. Riffing on the work of the guardians very own Kat Lay (brilliant writer) we noted how the new antibiotics Zoliflodacin and Gepotidicin offered startling new horizons in the battle against gonorrhoea and other other unpleasant diseases of-well you know, down there, as they say. We hoped that, as antibiotics for these diseases had been developed, those for other diseases might soon follow. And thanks to Ms. Lay, we discovered the work of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) whose work we will now champion for ever more. All in all, everything was in a much better place than when we started this crusade, eleven long years ago, we concluded.

Not so fast, says The Guardian. Humanity may actually be losing the race to develop these new drugs. Since 2017 only 16 new antibiotics have achieved approval, and none of them are very different to the old ones. Which means resistance to them can be expected very soon. Point to them, we concede. They namecheck GARDP again, noting its work as a positive. But that the financial structures designed to encourage pharmaceutical companies to step up to the mark are still rather new. And-more points to the team from York Place- there is a rather incisive survey of where all these new antibiotics are to come from. Old LSS favourites like natural sources and AI modelling are acknowledged. But they are not all-curing magic wands. And what to do with any new antibiotics anyway? Ration them carefully, so that resistance develops more slowly? How do you do that in a world of billions, where people and information flow so freely, and the profits of piracy are so temptingly in reach? Gentle readers, your editors did not think of those ones fully either.

OK, we throw in the towel. Guardian 3 LSS 0 (FT). When it comes to superior knowledge, close reasoning and intellectual power, they have got us beat. But we take consolation gentle readers, When the genetic dice roll, they roll evenly. They got all the brains. We got all the charm and good looks. As the last picture above demonstrates very clearly. And yes- we promise another cocktail recipe before New Year.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/29/the-guardian-view-on-antibiotics-recent-breakthroughs-are-great-news-but-humanity-is-losing-the-bi

#antibiotic resistance #antibiotics #health #medicine #microbiology #epidemiology #GARDP