Researchers found that people are developing dementia a decade earlier than they were 20 years ago, possibly due to factors such as pollution and insecticides, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
The study compared data from 21 Western countries between 1989 and 2010 and found that the disease is more commonly diagnosed in people in their late 40s, in addition to climbing death rates.
The research suggest the issue is particularly severe in the United States. Study authors say neurological deaths in men over the age of 75 have nearly tripled, and have risen more than five-fold in women. Scientists partially attribute this rise to environmental factors and widespread use of pesticides, according to the London Times.
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Deaths caused by neurological disease have risen in 55- to 74-year-olds and have almost doubled in those over 75 years old, according to the study. Sixty percent of the increase in deaths were due to dementia, with 40 percent of deaths attributed to other neurological disease like Parkinson’s and motor neuron disease.
“The rate of increase in such a short time suggested a silent or even a hidden epidemic, in which environmental factors must play a major part, not just aging,” lead study author Colin Pritchard said.
Other researchers are careful to note that environmental factors are only a possible element of the findings, and in no way proven.
More and more I am convinced that we are designed for a much different world. End up in a place where your mind is on overdrive every moment, trying to keep you alive, and your mind will develop like a muscle. At the epigenetic level, as you burn proteins off your DNA blueprint, little molecules will be shifted around on the DNA and these changes will be carried to offspring, making their DNA naturally able to produce a stronger, more capable mind. It is as if a parent lifting weights made a child more muscular. They laughed at Lamarck, but he was right, and we see that even in mice today.
The effects of an animal’s environment during adolescence can be passed down to future offspring, according to two new studies. If applicable to humans, the research, done on rodents, suggests that the impact of both childhood education and early abuse could span generations. The findings provide support for a 200-year-old theory of evolution that has been largely dismissed: Lamarckian evolution, which states that acquired characteristics can be passed on to offspring…
In Feig’s study, mice genetically engineered to have memory problems were raised in an enriched environment–given toys, exercise, and social interaction–for two weeks during adolescence. The animals’ memory improved–an unsurprising finding, given that enrichment has been previously shown to boost brain function. The mice were then returned to normal conditions, where they grew up and had offspring. This next generation of mice also had better memory, despite having the genetic defect and never having been exposed to the enriched environment.
Now we find that in a world where, generation after generation, most people live sedentary lives in front of a boob tube, watching the Kardashians name their pet rabbit and the man of the house dress like a girl, that people’s brains are beginning to deteriorate faster and earlier in life. It is almost proper that in such a world voting for Obama should be labeled “progress.”
I am kind of in disbelief as I contemplate in my mind what I think the coming apocalypse may look like. As I traverse the piles of dead bodies in my brain, stepping from skull to skull gently, and marveling at the carnage beneath me, I think to myself, there can’t be this much mortality, can there? I think there can be, and they are not even waiting for the shortage to begin before they start dropping like flies from “brain failure.”
Apocalypse cometh™
I’ve recently heard Alzheimers called “diabetes of the brain.”