
Air pollution a risk factor for diabetes - upen
http://healthsciencemag.org/2016/09/10/air-pollution-a-risk-factor-for-diabetes-say-researchers/
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0xcde4c3db
Possibly related: regularly encountered concentrations of ultrafine particles
(UFP) have been found to reduce or even eliminate exercise-induced release of
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [1] [2], a response which is believed
to play a key role in the neurological and psychological benefits of exercise.
I suspect that this is just one branch of a larger causal web and that UFP or
other correlated pollution may also be reducing some of the broader
endocrine/metabolic benefits of exercise.

To the best of my knowledge, UFP levels are not routinely reported or
regulated. I think this is because they pass through most filters. IIRC, some
kind of multi-stage filter with a liquid medium has to be used to get an
accurate count.

[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22867973](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22867973)

[2]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21708224](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21708224)

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internaut
I don't doubt you're right but I also worry that concern over each vector for
bad air could easily make us neurotic.

Many problems of this sort (e.g. wood naturally contains formaldehyde) are
likely solved using plant life.

So; the solution could be cheap and affordable. I realize this seems like
homespun vaguely natural medicine (no chemicals!) advocacy but this is not
that.

There's a nice NASA study on the subject in my comment below.

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jawngee
I really wish people would put more effort into differentiating which form of
diabetes they were talking about, because they aren't all the same. Type 1 and
type 2 are only superficially similar. And now Alzheimer's is being called
diabetes type 3.

As a parent of a type 1, it's hugely frustrating to be reading an article on
diabetes, only to discover they are talking about type 2 when I'm half way
through it.

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tonyedgecombe
Perhaps it's time for a campaign to rename type 1 diabetes.

~~~
kirubakaran
Monobetes?

~~~
nibs
Autobetes perhaps? One is autoimmune pancreatic insulin resistance (T1), one
is self-induced pancreatic insulin resistance (T2), one is autoimmune or self-
induced nervous system insulin resistance (Alz).

~~~
jawngee
T1 isn't insulin resistance, T1 is no insulin production.

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reasonattlm
This seems like one of those not terribly relevant statements one can make for
any environmental factor that correlates with lower life expectancy. Aging is
damage, age-related disease is caused by damage, and thus people with shorter
life expectancies have more damage and more age-related disease.

Air pollution is quite well correlated with lower life expectancy, though it
is one of those factors, like wealth, intelligence, education, and social
status, that are all entwined with one another and with observed variations in
life expectancy. There are direct mechanisms whereby exposure to pollutants
can cause harm, but it is also true that there is evidence for the genetics of
intelligence to also provide greater physical robustness. There is no really
good data to sort out which of the mix of many correlations is actually
driving the observed relationships between air pollution and age-related
disease, given that greater wealth means evading or lowering air pollution,
and the true causes of the wealth-longevity relationship are obscure. Much the
same could be said for any of the individual relationships in this web.

~~~
internaut
> Air pollution is quite well correlated with lower life expectancy, though it
> is one of those factors, like wealth, intelligence, education, and social
> status, that are all entwined with one another and with observed variations
> in life expectancy.

I'm not so sure about that actually, which surprises even me.

Outside, it is a problem of regulation and I won't touch that here.

Inside the home in rich countries e.g. Ireland, US, I hear building inspectors
say that if normal home air quality was extant in restaurants they would be
immediately shut down.

So there is a technological problem here.

I also heard from a lifetime expert in HVAC say that venting air from cooking
food with our appliances does not actually work properly at all, and also that
we introduce humid air into our homes for which there is apparently (so I'm
told) no current controls and this causes mold growths thus lowering IAQ.

I'm not an expert but it does seem like more could be done.

In my history I have a nice few videos documenting some evidence about the
importance of IAQ and improving it, if you're interested I'll dig them up.

~~~
Aegon
I would be really interested in seeing those videos - and I am sure other
readers would appreciate it as well!

~~~
internaut
From this thread "How Trees Calm Us Down":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12053272](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12053272)

Japanese researcher describes (with control group) the interesting affects of
walking in a forest.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0)

Indian researcher describes side affects of indoor plants on health esp. air
quality.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA)

I'm incorporating some of these concepts into my tiny house design e.g. a
(truly ingenious design using mirrors!) terrarium and an hinoki ofuro,
together with natural daylighting.

A poster called mantesso offered up this interesting paper: Here's the
original study from NASA, Interior Landscape plants for indoor air pollution
abatement :

[http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/1993007...](http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930073077.pdf)

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jschwartzi
The article makes no mention of repeated measurements or a time period over
which the subjects were studied. There's evidence of an association, but I see
no evidence that exposure to air pollution causes diabetes. It might have been
more effective had they studied these people longitudinally.

One confounding factor is that homes which are in direct proximity to high-
traffic areas are cheaper than homes which aren't. The price factors in the
noise pollution from the road, which also likely correlates with air
pollution. It would be interesting to see what the relationship is between
pre-diabetes and income, because I think that that's actually the relationship
they're seeing.

We do know that poor air quality has detrimental impacts on the body, though,
so I could be wrong.

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pasbesoin
Ok.

Pollution --> allergies and congestion --> obstructed breathing (both waking
and sleeping) --> exhaustion --> pre-existing established links to diabetes,
both the stress of exhaustion and the resulting challenge to leading a healthy
lifestyle (diet, exercise, social fulfillment, etc.)

Yes, seems a long chain of inference. However, having had personal experience
with this (minus the diabetes, so far), my personal observation has supported
it substantially and in manifold detail in my own mind.

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lutusp
A retrospective study, the kind of study that notoriously cannot distinguish
causes from effects. The fact that the subjects are drawn from an existing
population who live in high-pollution areas is not, and cannot be, eliminated
as a cofactor. In short, do these people have diabetes because they're exposed
to pollutants, or is the state of their health and their place of residence
both connected to some third unexamined factor? The study cannot tell us.

