Study links air pollution, dementia

A new study says there may be a link between air pollution and dementia.

The National Institutes of Health looked at nine emission sources including agriculture, wildfires, road traffic and coal combustion.

“There’s several potential ways air pollution could affect the brain. One is through just inflammation that it causes in the lungs, in the body that may also enter the brain,” said Dr. Charles Bernick, a neurologist for the Cleveland Clinic, who was not part of the study. “There’s also the thought that the toxic properties of air pollution itself could directly enter into the brain.”

The study reviewed information from 28,000 adults who are 50 and older over a 10-year span.