Air Pollution --- What You Need to Know

Air is a basic for life. But we take it for granted. Air pollution is a fact of most modern living now, and crosses boundaries across countries and into neighbourhood — it is difficult avoid it completely.

It can have serious health consequences over a lifetime. It's pretty grim reading, with impacts ranging from strokes to mental health issues.

But clean air is becoming increasingly rare. To the point that in some cities in the world, doing just 30 minutes of exercise does more harm than good [4].

In recent decades, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States has had great success in improving air quality. The emission of air toxins has declined 74 percent since 1990 [5].

However, by 2019, 82 million American’s were still living in counties that pollution levels still exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

1. Air Pollution Has Been Well Established as Detrimental to Our Health.
   Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as cancer have been linked to air pollution in urban environments [7].

2. Air Pollution Hurts Cognitive Functions.

   Air pollution acts as a toxin and promotes inflammatory responses, which may cascade into neuroinflammation, dysregulation and neurodegeneration.

   Studies show that air pollution is linked to impaired judgement, mental health problems, poorer performance in school and most worryingly perhaps, higher levels of crime.

   Heavy metals in air is one contaminant that crosses the blood-brain barrier. The air we breathe could be changing our behaviour in ways we are only just beginning to understand.

   In 2011 that Sefi Roth, a researcher at the London School of Economics was pondering the many effects of air pollution. He was well aware of the negative outcome on health, increased hospital admissions and also mortality. But he was staggered to find a clear link between air quality and how well students perform in their examinations! Read more about his study here.
   
   This can be particularly harmful to children. Researchers at an asthma summer camp found that air pollution was significantly and consistently correlated with acute asthma exacerbations, chest symptoms and lung function decrements [8].

   A slew of studies have looked at air pollution and students’ academic performance in schools: Mohai et al. 2011; Grineski et al. 2020; Lu et al. 2021; Berman et al. 2018) and absenteeism (Berman et al. 2018; Zhang et al. 2022)

3. Children Are Especially Vulnerable to Air Pollution

   Our young children are most vulnerable to adverse health effects from air pollution due to smaller physiques, faster rates of respiration, and developing organ systems (Legot et al. 2012; Gauderman et al. 2007; Garcia et al. 2021; Calderón-Garcidueñas et al. 2014).

4. Air Pollution Correlates with Crime and Violence.

   Roth analysed two years of crime data from over 600 of London’s electoral wards, and found that more petty crimes occurred on the most polluted days, in both rich and poor areas.

   We know heavy metals — common in air pollution— is one toxin that predicts more aggressive and violent behaviour in schools.

   Research, led by Jackson Lu of MIT examined nine years of data and covering almost the entire US in over 9,000 cities. It found that “air pollution predicted six major categories of crime”, including manslaughter, rape, robbery, stealing cars theft and assault. The cities highest in pollution also had the highest crime rates. This was another correlational study, but it accounted for factors like population, employment levels, age and gender – and pollution was still the main predictor of increased crime levels.

5. Air Pollution Can Result in Reduced Productivity.

   This 2016 study backed up the above studies as well as Roth’s initial findings that pollution can result in reduced productivity.

6. Air Pollution Can Make You Fat.

   So we know two people can eat the same foods, and do the same exercise, but over the course of a few years, one may put on more weight… It is due to an impaired metabolism (basically how your body makes energy), and air pollution is one major contributor to worsening metabolism.

   Traffic fumes and cigarette smoke are the top culprits because their tiny, irritating particles are able to trigger widespread inflammation and disrupt the body’s ability to burn energy.

   “We are starting to understand that the uptake and circulation of air pollution in the body can affect more than just the lungs,” — Hong Chen, a researcher at Public Health Ontario and the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Canada.

7. Particulate Matter (pm2.5) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) - Both of Which Come From Vehicle Exhausts Are Particularly Harmful.

   Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is comprised of solid and liquid aerosolized particles, so these can deposit deep into the lungs causing oxidative stress and inflammation in several organ systems including the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, metabolic and neurological systems

   Check out these studies: Bont et al. 2022; Li et al. 2019; Burkart et al. 2022; Delgado-Saborit et al. 2021.

   Researchers couldn’t find any threshold where PM2.5 did no harm, and even those living in the least polluted suburbs of London were affecte.

8. Very Low Amounts of Carbon Monoxide (Co) Can Impair Brain Functions.

   Other air pollutants target the body via separate pathways.

   For example, carbon monoxide (CO) binds exceedingly well with Hemoglobin in the body. Hemoglobin, essential for oxygen delivery, binds with CO 200–300 times more than with oxygen, preventing oxygen from binding to hemoglobin (Patel et al. 2023)!

   CO is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas so carbon monoxide poisoning easily occurs, in which the body experiences severe hypoxia. The symptoms include: a shortness of breath, headache, an altered mental status. Finally, it can lead to death (Patel et al. 2023).

   A study of university students exposed to varying levels of CO revealed even low-level exposure resulted in impaired cognition and visual processing (Amitai et al. 1998).

9. Nitrogen Dioxide Can Cause Respiratory Diseases.

   NO2 in air pollution irritates the airways, aggravating including asthma (Epa 2022). It also affect the neurological system, as researchers have found associations between NO2 and dementia (Chang et al. 2014)

10. more than half of the world’s population now live in urban environments – and more of us are travelling in congested areas than ever before.

References and resources:

Rau AT, Harding AB, Ryan A, Ramirez MR, Renner LM, Berman JD. Ambient air pollution and the risk of violence in primary and secondary school settings: a cross-sectional study. Inj Epidemiol. 2024 Jun 13;11(1):24. doi: 10.1186/s40621-024-00512-6. PMID: 38867329; PMCID: PMC11170797.

Lifestyle Tip for a Calm Home - Natural Movement

In the list of to-dos for a good home, we don’t often consider whether it gets us moving.

We think of home as a place to cosy into and curl up in, in chairs, armoirs, and beds.

For good reason, as we want our home space to be safe and predictable, protected from any intruders, from dangerous animals to bugs and bosses…

But — Many everyday common furniture and interior design can sabotage our need to move. Create a home that embraces natural movement options to avoid installing an overly sedentary space that impedes and discourages us from moving our bodies.

Why you want to move, naturally

Stress is a baseline starting point for a lot of mental and emotional dysregulation. And movement is a way that the body releases the build up of stress.

Being able to move and stretch in positive ways is a release for the nervous system. You are literally letting go stress, trauma, and anything your body would prefer to not hold on to.

This is why daily walks outdoors are so powerful for health; they’re a way to shake off nervous energy, even if your walks are in the city (i.e., you’re not getting to fully ground in Nature).

A home space that affords complex and adaptable movement patterns help maintain a clarity and restful state for the mind. This feeling of competence, peace, and grace permeates the home.

(In fact, I believe a successful home is one that facilitates you going out with confidence into the wider world and connecting with Nature and with people in your community—both core principles in building biology.)

What is natural movement?

Natural human movement is all about being able to move well in everyday life and in all the activities and sports you love to do. It’s about moving your body with ease in a wide variety of ways that are applicable to the real world.

The MovNat movement became popular in response to the regimented exercises that seem to characterise modern lifestyles. The best thing: anyone can gain from improving their movement, from elite athletes to those quite out of shape. You don’t have to be fit to move, you have to move to be fit.

When you reconnect with your body’s natural movement abilities – everything from getting out of bed to moving furniture, to playing with your children will feel different. You will be astonished how your body responds to practicing its natural movements.

The seven primary movement patterns are squat, lunge, push, pull, press, twist, and gait (walking, running, and sprinting). Some professionals may list “hinge” as a primary movement pattern and leave “press” (as in, overhead press) off the list.

The problem with four walls—cabin fever

Modern lifestyle comforts such as soft sofas and big fluffy pillows may have been designed with good intentions. However, they’ve diminished the necessity for us to maintain natural postures and, in turn, move naturally.

#1: natural movement improves mood and better body

hhawareness, alignment, muscle recruitment, and mobility. It can also reduce the stress placed on joints, release and strengthen connective tissue, and form part of a holistic pain management solution.

#2: Natural Movement Is Crucial Especially in Your Child’s First Three Years

Growing up is intensely physical during the early years, and babies are learning to use the entirety of their bodies. Every time your baby swings her arms, kicks her legs, or turns her head, she is discovering how different parts of her body work.

The more your little one develops their large muscles through reaching, rolling, pushing, sitting, crawling, climbing, and walking, the better their later development of small muscle movements like holding a spoon, turning a doorknob, or using a crayon.

Some common items for the 0-3 years old include driving instead of walking and the use of “bouncy seats” and “exersaucers,” in which babies sit in one position to play instead of moving their whole bodies freely.

#2: Natural movement helps cchildren learn better

Children acquire knowledge by acting and then reflecting on their experiences. Children learn through experience, in which children acquire knowledge by doing and via reflection on their experiences, is full of movement, imagination, and self-directed play.

If your kids are in school, they’re likely spending the bulk of their time in a passive learning environment. A study from the University of Virginia found that, compared to just a few decades ago in 1998, children today are spending far less time on self-directed learning—moving freely and doing activities that they themselves chose—and measurably more time in a passive learning environment.

#3: Natural movement can predict your lifespan

How fast can you get in and out of a chair? Do you need extra assistance, such as getting up on their knees or using two hands? Many studies are showing that, away from complicated diets and routines, health can be more accurately defined — and longevity predicted — by very simple health parameters, such as muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and body composition.

The study found a simple two-minute test could predict the level of overall fitness in middle age that earmarks those likely to enjoy a longer life.

Researchers said the ease with which someone could stand up from a sitting position on the floor – and vice versa – was linked to a reduced risk of dying early.

“If a middle-aged or older man or woman can sit and rise from the floor using just one hand – or even better without the help of a hand – they are not only in the higher quartile of musculo-skeletal fitness but their survival prognosis is probably better than that of those unable to do so.” —Dr Claudio Gil Araújo, who carried out the study with colleagues at the Clinimex-Exercise Medicine Clinic in Rio de Janeiro

#3: Natural movement can is Connected with a Confident Sense of Self

Along the same lines of thought, in 1926, strong man and physical culture enthusiast Earle Liederman wrote a book called Endurance. So while Liederman did “not believe in everyone striving to be a long distance swimmer, a long distance runner, or any kind of endurance athlete,” we felt we ought to be able to move.

In it, Liederman makes the case for developing all-around strength and fitness as a way of not only preserving one’s health in the everyday sense of extending longevity, but protecting it under extraordinary and acutely threatening circumstances. 

He wrote, bluntly:

If he is of the fat, porpoise type, naturally he cannot do all, if any, of these things; he has nobody to blame but himself, and his way of living that has brought his body into its condition of obesity.

Unfortunately, the homes we built impede the thinhs that we can actually do. The panacea is to create a home space that enables you to move the way your body craves.

#3: Natural movement can is Connected with a Confident Sense of Self

Dr. Peter Levine developed somatic experiencing as a body-based therapy to process and release trauma. In his book “Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma,” Levine notes that animals can be observed shaking to release tension and stress. You might’ve seen a dog do this.

So maybe you’re thinking you’re not “traumatised” and you don’t need this therapy. However, most of us have a higher than optimal background level of stress, in part due to unnatural and stressful lifestyles.

Being able to move and jive as you please helps to release muscular tension, burn excess adrenaline, and calm the nervous system to its neutral state, thereby managing stress levels in the body.

It is easy to see this at play (no pun intended) with children. Getting to roughhouse (respectfully) is one way to have fun together, and it’s easy to see how anxious energy dissipates and connection happens with physical play.

It seems to loosen everybody up beyond just old bones or fidget young bums.

When you become a new parent, your usual routines get tossed to the wayside. Even if you can chug along well enough, neglecting self-care that include a good diet of physical activity is a fast track to depletion and stress building up…in yourself and at home.

Rather than piling on the guilt factor for not making it outdoors enough to a gym or even just a walk, I believe it is more effective to make space that actually encourage quality natural movement.

Create a calm, resilient home with natural movement

It is hard to keep up exclusively-yours exercise routines at exclusive places such as gyms. However, being mom or dad and making a home does not have to be sedentary, and I have learnt to expand my definition of movement to address how we can work with interior design and the flow of household chores and tasks.

Here are some ways to make space to move naturally around the house:

• Vary seating around the house. We love cosy seats, love seats, armchairs, sofas, and beds. Also consider benches and seating that come in various tactile surfaces.

• Ditch seating around the house. Identify the chairs and seats that you don’t like. Take the chance to clear out common “baby containers” such as bouncy strollers, etc.

• Uncluttered areas where you can get on the floor. This allows your parasympathetic system to kick in as your breathing slows down.

• Uncluttered areas and tasks where you get practise the “sit-to-stand” exercise. Laundry, getting on the floor to play “wrestling” with your kids, or just having your laptop space close to the ground are great opportunities every day to practise.

• Create a safe area where your child can hang out “reigns free”. It’s a vital spot that can serve a few purposes: your child can move as he/she wishes, spinning in a circle, jumping in and out of a makeshift rocket ship out of a discarded box, turning Lego into a high-jump routine… And your own amusement as you may carry on your tasks un-jostled with entertainment.

• Create a pebble tray or a foot reflexology path.

• Create a movement sacred spot. Have fun with this and make it a place for your movement goals that you always wanted. It may be a special yoga mat to practice flow movements, a pull-up bar to regain your 100-pull-up dominance, or a rebounder.

Does your home help or hinder how you move around the house? How does your body feel at home, even if you don’t get a chance to get out of doors? Let’s make space for natural movement — for a home that feels at ease.

If you are craving a calm home, check out this post on another lifestyle tip that impacts the calm of your home.

Resources

• Amazon link to the book. https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Original-Restored-Earle-Liederman/dp/1466433876

• Amazon link to Dr Peter Gray’s book book “Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.”

Study: Comprehensive Review of Mercury Provoked Autism

Emerging evidence supports the theory that some autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may result from a combination of genetic/biochemical susceptibility

This is especially when the body is not able to excrete mercury and/or when one is exposed to mercury at critical developmental periods, such as during pregnancy and in childhood.

Mercury Causes Autism Symptoms

Mercury has been found to cause immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioural dysfunctions similar to traits defining/associated with ASDs, and that these similarities extend to neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters, and biochemistry.

These symptoms span social relatedness and communication, repetitive behaviors, and stereotypic abnormal movement patterns.

The Research Findings

• Mercurials may be found in drugs for the eye, ear, nose, throat, and skin; in bleaching creams; as preservatives in cosmetics, tooth pastes, lens solutions, vaccines, allergy test and immunotherapy solutions; in antiseptics, disinfectants, and contraceptives; in fungicides and herbicides; in dental fillings and thermometers; and many other products.

• Mercury has been to cause immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioural dysfunctions similar to traits defining/associated with ASDs. These similarities extend to neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters, and biochemistry.

• A review of molecular mechanisms showed that mercury exposure can induce death, disorganization and/or damage to selected neurons in the brain similar to that seen in recent ASD brain pathology studies. The researchers suggest that these neuronal alterations may likely produce the symptoms by which ASDs are diagnosed.

• A review of treatments suggests that ASD patients who undergo protocols to reduce mercury show significant clinical improvements in some cases.

The researchers note that in conclusion, the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence favours acceptance that Hg exposure is capable of causing some ASDs.

Environmental Toxins Can Inflame the Brain

Here’s another study that reviewed how heavy metals can cause autism through brain inflammation. The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled "Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review."

The author is Helen Ratajczak, who used to be a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm.

Ratajczak did what nobody else apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them. You can read about her study here.

References:

• Geier DA, King PG, Sykes LK, Geier MR. A comprehensive review of mercury provoked autism. Indian J Med Res. 2008 Oct;128(4):383-411. PMID: 19106436.

• Heavy metals are a risk factor for autism since, according to previous studies, it has been recognised as a neurotrophic toxin. Check out the study here.

Study: Relationship Between Heavy Metals and Autism

What do autism and spectrum disorders in tiny children have in common with older people suffering with dementia? Their brains are chockful of heavy metals. These heavy metals be may exist in our environment naturally, or as impurities introduced through raw materials that are used in the production process -- of anything from cosmetics, household materials like paint, to the water you consume.

What Are Heavy Metals?

By definition, heavy metals are elements that can elicit adverse effects on the central nervous system and cognitive function. It is a huge and growing concern with far-reaching implications for human health, especially for the development of young children.

The most common heavy metals are elements, such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), and chromium (Cr), which can exert toxic effects on living organisms at even very low exposure levels.

When you are poisoned by heavy metals, you suffer severe and long-term consequences on the brain, resulting in cognitive impairment. Chronic exposure to heavy metals may interrupt the development of physical, muscular, and neurological conditions, that look a lot like diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disorders.

The Study: The Relationship between the Level of Copper, Lead, Mercury and Autism Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

We know about the likelihood of a possible relationship between the concentrations of copper, lead, and mercury and autism. Researchers in this study wanted to review various studies to determine the relationship between the concentrations of these elements and autism by meta-analysis.

They eventually chose 18 out of 95 selected studies, involving 2–16-year-old children from different countries from 1982 to 2019.

The Results

The results were significant.

In these 18 studies, 1797 patients (981 cases and 816 controls) aged 2 to 16 years were examined. Concentration of the samples (blood, hair, and nails) for both case and control groups was evaluated. There was no significant relationship between copper concentration and autism (SMD (95% CI): 0.02 (− 1.16,1.20); I2=97.7%; P=0.972); there was a significant relationship between mercury concentration and autism (SMD (95% CI): 1.96 (0.56,3.35); I2=98.6%; P=0.006); there was also a significant relationship between lead concentration and autism (SMD (95% CI): 2.81 (1.64,3.98); I2=97.8%; P=0.000).

These heavy metals were found in various parts of the children through tests, especially in their blood plasma and nails. You can check out the concentrations of copper, mercury and lead in samples of hair, nails, and plasma of the children with autism and a control group in studies— the results of the meta-analysis are presented in Table 1 of the study.

Due to the chemical properties of certain metals, excessive metal exposure can cause brain abnormalities.

The study was published in Pediatric Health Medicine.

Why is this study important?

The review examined multiple studies and found a very strong link between lead and mercury concentration and autism.

Yet, are you aware of just how pervasive these toxic heavy metals are in our environment? It's found in things from cosmetics, interior decor and materials like paint, down to our water supply and quality of air.

Compared with adults, children are more exposed to environmental toxic elements and also absorb them at a higher rate.

On the other hand, the chance of warding off elements’ toxicity in children is less than adults.

Evidence of mercury’s toxicity has been growing for decades, and in recent years is focused on the metal’s association with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Brain health is what makes us happy, creative, vital individuals. We can build all the muscle we want and look good on the outside, but it is our super powerful computing system that powers how we live every day. If you are serious about averting neurological crises and general degeneration, prioritise eliminating every source of heavy metals in your own home.

References & Notes:

• Jafari Mohammadabadi H, Rahmatian A, Sayehmiri F, Rafiei M. The Relationship Between the Level of Copper, Lead, Mercury and Autism Disorders: A Meta-Analysis. Pediatric Health Med Ther. 2020;11:369-378
  https://doi.org/10.2147/PHMT.S210042 Link: https://www.dovepress.com/the-relationship-between-the-level-of-copper-lead-mercury-and-autism-d-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-PHMT

• Mercury is a risk factor for autism. Mercury is considered as a risk factor for autism since, according to previous studies, it has been recognized as a neurotrophic toxin. Check out the study here.

Study: Toxic chemical exposure during pregnancy linked to serious health issues by elementary school

A study adds to the body of research showing that the mother’s exposure to toxins affects her child’s health well into the growing years. This study is one of the most comprehensive endeavors delving into early-life environmental origins of metabolic risk, further bolstering prior toxicological and epidemiological evidence in this area

Link to study: Prenatal Exposure to Chemical Mixtures and Metabolic Syndrome Risk in Children, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.12040

the study

The researchers looked at 1134 mother-child pairs from 6 European countries (France, Greece, Lithuania, Norway, Spain, and the UK), and their prenatal exposures to common endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) mixtures. The mean age of the mothers at the birth of their child was 30.7 years, and they were recuited into the study April 1, 2003, and January 30, 2009.

These common toxic chemicals included “metals, organochlorine pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers [that’s PBDEs, or flame retardants], and perfluoroalkyl substances”.

They then measured the children born to the mothers at 6 to 11 years of age. They focused on markers of metabolic syndrome, which combines measurements of blood sugars, lipids such as cholesterol, the existence of fat tissue and the impact on the heart.

We almost always consider health risks from single chemicals, one at a time, as if we are exposed to just one chemical at a time. Here the research team shows that children’s risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes later in life can be driven by the complex mixtures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the body at any moment and it highlights the particular risk of chemical exposures during pregnancy. —Jane Houlihan, the national director of science and health for Healthy Babies Bright Futures

what the researchers found

They found that the exposure to toxins were associated with increased metabolic syndrome risk score and altered proinflammatory proteins, amino acids, and glycerophospholipid levels in childhood.

The childrens’ comprehensive tests had elevated levels of metabolic syndrome at ages 6 to 11. Metabolic syndrome can include obesity, elevated blood pressure, and abnormally high cholesterol and insulin resistance, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Within the group of children exposed to the highest levels of chemicals, 62% were overweight or obese, compared with 16% of children within the low-risk group.

Moreover, the levels of blood insulin and triglycerides, as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure, were significantly higher in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group.

Pregnancy and childhood are especially important times to limit exposure to chemicals as the brain and body are in key stages of development. Sign up for a free guide to common pollutants AT HOME that you can reduce now.

Study: Scrotal temperature is increased in disposable plastic lined nappies

The one study that does give cloth diapers a leg up in health benefits for baby boys appeared in the October 2000 issue of the Disease in Childhood medical journal. In that article,

Disposable plastic-lined nappies have a long line of problems.

The study

German researchers measured the scrotal skin temperature in 48 healthy children aged 0–55 months (three age groups) for two 24 hour periods in randomised order (either cotton or disposable plastic lined nappies) using a portable, miniature recorder.

They found that the scrotal skin temperatures of baby boys were significantly higher when they wore disposable diapers than when they wore cloth.

They highlighted how the usual physiological testicular cooling mechanism is blunted and often completely abolished during plastic nappy use. Your baby’s bits are not able to regulate itself in a hot plastic nappy.

Higher scrotal temperatures, lower sperm counts

They suggest that prolonged use of disposable diapers as infants was an "important factor" contributing to the decline of sperm production among adult males. To make healthy sperm, you need a good environment for the sperm-producing parts of the body; that is, scrotal hypothermia is an important factor for normal spermatogenesis.

“Male reproductive health has deteriorated in recent decades. (…) increased testicular temperature in early childhood, due to the use of modern disposable plastic lined nappies (diapers), could be an important factor contributing to this decline.”

The interesting thing is that Proctor & Gamble conducted its own study and also found that scrotal skin temperatures increased for boys in disposable diapers.

References

1. Partsch C, Aukamp M, Sippell WG. Scrotal temperature is increased in disposable plastic lined nappies. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2000;83:364-368.