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Researchers link higher autism risk to air pollution

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One news report on air pollution and autism says that breathing polluted air may double the risk of autism, according to latest news reports about a new study by University of Southern California (USC) published online, “Traffic-Related Air Pollution, Particulate Matter, and Autism.” But another news report today notes that kids exposed to highest levels of traffic-related air pollution (and car pollution) were three times more likely to develop autism. Scientists also found a link between exposure to air pollution in the womb — particularly during late pregnancy — and an increased risk of autism.

You can read the original study or its abstract published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Children born to women have been exposed to high pollution levels are at higher risk for autism, the new study reports. Basically the news of what the latest study found is that the risk of autism increases with the levels of air pollution exposure. The smog that still shrouds downtown Los Angeles from time to time can contribute to the development of autism in infants, the new USC study notes.

Previous studies have shown that kids who live closer to freeways are more likely to develop autism, a disease that now affects 1 in 88 children in the USA. Exposure to air pollution traffic during pregnancy and the first year of life increases an infant’s risk of autism, according to a study released today. Studies of air pollution also have noted that it contributes to high blood pressure. See the article, Busy Roads Boost Blood Pressure.

Sacramento’s air pollution issues and children’s health

A few years ago the air pollution in Sacramento near a middle school near Arden Way and Watt Avenue registered such a high reading of air pollution that more trees and green plants were placed near the school to absorb some of the air pollution. The outermost school building lies close to roads. See the June 23, 2011 news article, Sacramento Bee – UC Davis News & Information: In the News.

A state law passed in 2010 requires school districts to analyze and address the effects of vehicle pollution on school sites proposed within 500 feet of a freeway or thoroughfare. According to the article, Sacramento Bee – UC Davis News & Information: In the News, in addition to school congestion, high traffic levels along Watt persist throughout the day. Arden Middle’s unfortunate location has caught the eye of the local American Lung Association’s Health Effects Task Force.

In 2002, the task force enlisted Tom Cahill, an atmospheric physicist and international expert on air pollution at the University of California, Davis, to measure the particulates coming from Interstate 5. Out of curiosity, the task force also asked Cahill to put a monitor at Arden Middle School. The results surprised and alarmed them: The traffic at Arden and Watt subjects the school to levels of particle pollution comparable to or greater than the levels seen from I-5.

Also see the November 27, 2012 CBS news article, “Autism risk increases with air pollution exposure, study finds – CBS.” Scientists have found that living near a freeway can put children at a greater risk of developing autism. But so can living in neighborhoods near heavy traffic. In Sacramento that means streets such as Arden Way, El Camino Avenue, Watt Avenue, and Marconi Avenue, where schools in the midst of heavy traffic air pollution have put up green plants, bushes, and trees to help absorb some of the air pollution.

The subject of environmental factors, mercury in particular, has been an important and concerning issue for parents of children with autism in the past. Latest research now links air pollution and autism. Today’s breaking news on the topic focuses on articles such as,
“Autism and Air Pollution: The Link Grows Stronger | TIME.com,” and the November 27, 2012 news article, “Shortcomings of study linking autism to air pollution highlight need for better research.”

People exposed to poor air quality during pregnancy and in their first year of life are more prone to the effects of autism, a study released Monday, November 26, 2012 concludes. The University of Southern California study suggests that exposure to traffic-generated air pollution, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide during pregnancy and during the first year of a child’s life may more than double that child’s risk of autism.

Researchers looked at the records of children, not laboratory animals in the new study

Researchers reviewed the records of more than 500 children — about half of whom were considered to be normally developing and half of whom were diagnosed with autism, a complex set of brain disorders characterized by problems with social interactions and communications. Kids breathing high amounts of the particulate-wracked air of traffic pollution in the latest study relative to the lowest rates of exposure were at a two-to-threefold increased risk for autism, according to researchers of the new study from the for the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

This latest study published online November 26, 2012 adds to a growing body of evidence that links the development of autism and possible environmental factors such as air pollution. Past studies possibly have linked air pollution to neurological problems, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Air pollution and Parkinson’s disease

The cause of Parkinson’s disease remains unknown, but, according to November 4, 2010 Los Angeles Times article by Mary Forgione, For the Los Angeles Times, “Studies examine environmental factors that may be linked to higher risk of Parkinson’s,” it’s pollutants in various urban areas that may increase the risk.

According to the LA Times article, the Health Notes blog of the Newport News Daily Press reports on a new analysis that identifies high levels of manganese and copper pollution as potential risk factors for some city dwellers. For example, people living in areas with higher levels of manganese pollution had a 78% greater risk of having Parkinson’s than those who didn’t, according to the Washington University in St. Louis report.

It’s not just copper and manganese excesses in the polluted air of some urban areas, but pesticide exposure also raises the risk of getting Parkinson’s disease. And people working on farms, ranches, or in rural areas can get exposure just living out in the country, working on farms, or drinking well water that’s full of pesticides running off of farms.

You might want to find out more about Parkinson’s researach. Michael J. Fox is funding various projects. Fox is the founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research,. The Foundation recently launched a five-year study to identify biomarkers of the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

Michael J. Fox has had Parkinson’s for almost 19 years, since he turned 30. Check out the article reporting how the Chicago Tribune explores one hospital’s participation in the new study in “Northwestern seeks clues to Parkinson’s.”

Also check out the Los Angeles Times’ Greenspace blog which notes that: “Rural residents who drink from private wells are up to twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s from certain pesticides, including methomyl, chlorpyrifos and propargite, according to a recent UCLA. People with Parkinson’s were more likely to have consumed water from private wells, and had done so for 4.3 years longer on average than people who did not have the disease, the study revealed.

Also, if you live in Sacramento near a freeway, (or any other area near a freeway) your risk of heart disease may go up. Check out the article, Study: Living Near Freeway May Be Hard On Heart – wbztv.com.

Can you protect your children against autism from air pollution, if there are any links that prove correct as research continues?

Pediatricians may advise parents to follow regional air quality advisories for those most vulnerable. For example, if you’re pregnant, stay inside or be away from open air on days when the pollution is bad. Daily newspapers often tell you the air quality on the page where the weather reports are.

In Sacramento, parents live where they can find affordable housing, and not many parents subscribe to daily newspapers that print air quality readings. You can find out the air quality of your area online. But if you drive to work or drive all day as your job, you’re in the midst of polluted air. For further information, check out the article, “Traffic-Related Air Pollution, Particulate Matter, and Autism.”

Sacramento has a steady stream of heavy traffic and high air pollution that may damage your brain or your arteries

Check out the news article, Traffic pollution may cause brain damage in humans | Way Out West News. California researchers found that exposure to modest amounts of traffic pollution caused memory loss and signs of Alzheimer’s disease in mice. Besides scientists examining the link between air pollution and Alzheimer’s disease in older adults, researchers also are looking for clues in science to connect the dots and links between autism in children and air pollution in the neighborhoods where they spend the most time–at home or in schools.

Many studies have focused on laboratory animals, but today’s need to to look at the impact of air pollution on children, on pregnant mom’s and on people of all ages. Studies need to be done on those who driven open-air vehicles from bicycling to work or school or driving motorcycles, convertibles, and open-door mail trucks. Are these people at highest risk of suffering the effects of air pollution because they breathe traffic air daily?

In Sacramento, if you live near the areas of heaviest traffic and walk for exercise, you’re breathing polluted air as well as those tiny particulates that get into your arteries. You may be at highest risk. Do you drive convertible cars, motorcycles, bikes, or mail trucks? Then you’re at highest risk.

Children born to women have been exposed to high pollution levels are at higher risk for autism

Tests showed that microscopic particles in the air, rather than ozone gases, caused a rise in blood pressure and impaired blood vessel function, according to the HealthDay September 14, 2009 article, “Air Pollution May Raise Blood Pressure – Inhaling microscopic particles could raise risk of heart disease, study finds.” (Source: University of Michigan, news release, September 2009).

Breathing polluted air for even two hours can boost blood pressure, potentially raising the risk of cardiovascular disease in those exposed to smog, a new study suggests. The problem with breathing Sacramento’s heavily-polluted air in certain parts of the city, could negate the good effects of nutrition and exercise. Also see: Busy Roads Boost Blood Pressure.

Although the increase may not mean much for healthy people, “this small increase may actually be able to a trigger a heart attack or stroke,” study author Dr. Robert D. Brook, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, said in a university news release.

An estimated nearly one in three Americans suffer from high blood pressure, meaning the heart is straining to push blood through the circulatory system. But can getting an air purifier in your home or working at home help?

Or is the air pollution–breathing the tiniest particles–the cause of your hypertension? What do you do when your doctors can’t find other causes, you’ve cut down on salt if you’re sensitive to it like 60 percent of those with essential hypertension are, and you’ve started your green juices regimen or a raw, vegan diet for a few weeks to see what happens? Can air pollution in the area spoil your healthy eating plan?

In the study, which appears in a recent issue of Hypertension, researchers tested 83 people as they breathed levels of air pollution similar to those in an urban city near a roadway. “We looked at their blood vessels and then their responses before and after breathing high levels of air pollution,” study co-author Robert Bard, a University of Michigan clinic research coordinator, said in a news release, “Air Pollution May Raise Blood Pressure – Inhaling microscopic particles could raise risk of heart disease, study finds.”

The air pollution caused diastolic pressure — the lower number in a blood pressure reading — to rise within two hours

Blood vessels were impaired for as long as 24 hours. “If air pollution levels are forecasted to be high, those with heart disease, diabetes or lung disease should avoid unnecessary outdoor activity,” Brook said in the news release. Living next to busy roads also may be bad for your blood pressure, a new study suggests.

If you look at the recent Swedish study – see: Busy Roads Boost Blood Pressure, performed by a team of scientists from Lund University Hospital, the data from nearly 28,000 questionnaires about people’s living arrangements in Scania, a province in southern Sweden, found that living close enough to traffic noise to hear it also raised blood pressure in younger people.

The scientists found that young and middle-aged people who lived in homes where they were exposed to traffic noise above 60 decibels were more likely to have high blood pressure.The association with hypertension got stronger as the decibel level went up.

Heavy air pollution from traffic in Sacramento near schools, homes, and apartments

If you cut to Sacramento in areas such as Arden Arcade, where you live a block or so from Watt Avenue or Marconi or other areas of heavy traffic, you now you have a combination of heavy air pollution from small particles rather than ozone, and you hear the traffic noise on those side streets only half a block from areas of heavy traffic such as El Camino Avenue, Watt Avenue, Marconi Avenue, Arden Way, and similarly congested streets. You’re hearing the noise, and at the same time you’re breathing the small particles. And you wonder why your nutrition regimens are not working right?

For bus riders, and those who must walk in the curbs to and from supermarkets and other shopping malls along streets without sidewalks, the air pollution increases for nondrivers as well as their only free form of exercise is walking next to heavy traffic. Some urban gyms also are located next to streets with heavy air pollution and traffic. Older nondrivers in Arden Arcade aren’t going to take a daily two-hour bus ride to Davis, where there is less small particle air pollution on some days.

When it comes to decibel levels of noise, in the Swedish study, among older people aged 60 to 80, higher decibel levels weren’t linked to more hypertension. One reason for the finding could be that younger people are less likely to have high blood pressure, making the impact from traffic noise more evident. For mature people, the small particles of air pollution is especially toxic.

Breathing small particulates in the air is related to heart disease and high blood pressure

Older people who aren’t physically able to move from houses they’ve lived in for many years, may be breathing the smaller particles that are related to higher blood pressure and heart disease, strokes, and coronary problems caused by the smaller particles of air pollution getting into their bloodstream and organs. Also see the HealthDay news articles: “Combat Exposure Tied to Chronic High Blood Pressure,” and “Air Pollution May Raise Blood Pressure.”

Sacramento has one of the worst air pollution problems in California. If you’re a woman with high blood pressure, living near areas of high air pollution might be causing your problem. Will antioxidant foods help you if you are not able to move to an area with cleaner air? See the May 17, 2010 HealthDay article, “Study Links Air Pollution to Higher Blood Pressure.”

If your blood pressure has gone up 20 points since moving to Sacramento, is it the air pollution or your diet that’s at the root of your problem? Is there a way to help yourself without having to move? Will berries help? Or are the health claims overpowered by the air pollution issues?

What can you do to lower your blood pressure, if no one is allowed to make any claims, when it’s the air pollution that is causing your heart problems, high blood pressure, and stroke risks? Should you turn to foods with powerful antioxidants?

Which is more important–diet or getting away from air pollution when it comes to high blood pressure?

While you’re wondering whether your diet can lower your blood pressure, for example, or whether berries can help, all the while, it may be the air pollution causing high blood pressure, especially in women. In the HealthDay article, “Study Links Air Pollution to Higher Blood Pressure,” the article mentions a study of 5,000 people in Germany.

Researchers at the department of environmental and clinical epidemiology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, examined the effect of air pollution on blood pressure for three years, between 2000 and 2003. The result of the study indicated that long-term exposure increased blood pressure, especially for women. The study’s results also were reported in BBC News.

You already know that air pollution does not only trigger life-threatening events like heart attacks and strokes, but that it may also influence the underlying processes, which lead to chronic cardiovascular diseases. So what can you now do to remove the underlying processes–the root–rather than treat the symptoms? Can berries help override the effects of air pollution when you can’t move away?

That remains to be studied by other scientists doing further research. The big picture is what can you do when you’re in the thick of air pollution for the long term, you can’t move, but you want some food that will override the effects of air pollution in Sacramento.

If berries can help you there, that’s the type of experiments scientists might look at–health benefits under realistic conditions in which humans live such as along Watt, Marconi, Arden Way, Howe Avenue, and El Camino Avenue, where heavy traffic is the norm as people live in homes lining those streets for decades. How do you keep the pressure normalized under air pollution conditions? What foods will help you under realistic living conditions locally if you’re not wealthy enough to buy a house in the foothills?

What if you’re pregnant and you have to be in traffic all day or drive in car pools bringing other people’s home from school? One holistic solution might be to take a look at any possible holistic health links as scientists study redox signaling as a dominant force in the health and wellness arena. The question remains whether “redox signaling” can help you if you are in heavy traffic and in areas of air pollution, usually the areas with the most affordable housing.

Claims made for foods (berries) to combat the effects of air pollution

And can any claims legally be made for foods combating the effects of air pollution in Sacramento neighborhoods, since so many private homes and apartments are around the corner from high traffic areas of the city. They may not hear the noise, but they breath the small particles of polluted air. Can berries help? Or does air pollution wipe out the benefits of pigmented plant foods?

The most powerful antioxidant berries to emerge in recent studies, according to the article, “The Secret Behind Acai,” published in the June 2010 issue of Life Extension magazine, page 40, contain “a class of polyphenols (plant-based compounds) known as anthocyanins.”

If you look at deep-colored berries–the blue, red, and purple–pigments in plants, they have specific health-related benefits being studied by scientists because these berries are rich in anthocyanins. If you’re eating blueberries, cranberries, pomegranates, black currents, beets, and acai, all these plant-based foods are rich in anthocyanins.

To put it in perspective, the anthocyanins in these fruits or vegetables are present only in tiny amounts. But they’re absorbed into your blood when you eat them, regardless of what your digestive acids do to the food. What happens is a physiological response with the purpose of helping to stop or at least slow down free radical activity. What you need to do is look at the actual scientific research that tells you how anthocyanins confer specific health benefits.

What science actually reports is that anthocyanins inhibit cancer cell growth by inducing apoptosis in a variety of cancer cell lines. At the same time anthocyanins also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, enhance glucose tolerance and lipid profiles, improve eye function, and limit cellular oxidative DNA damage. Check out the scientific study, “Oxidants, antioxidants, and the degenerative diseases of aging.” The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Low dietary intake of fruits and vegetables doubles the risk of most types of cancer as compared to high intake and also markedly increases the risk of heart disease and cataracts, according to the study. Since only 9% of Americans eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, the opportunity for improving health by improving diet is great.

Besides acai berries having health benefits studied by scientists, other beneficial pigmented plants include grapes, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, especially tart cherries, and purple corn. Raspberries protect against DNA damage in HT-29 colon cancer cells and inhibit HT-115 colon cancer invasion. But the studies have been done “in-vitro.” (In the test tube apparatus).

If you look closer at the studies, in combination with other berry extracts–raspberry extracts have shown ‘efficacy’ against “oral, breast, and prostate cancers in the laboratory. Note the studies were in vitro or in laboratory studies. Where are human trials? The tests were done with cells and berry extracts in test tube-like apparatus in laboratories.

Strawberry extracts, grapes, and grape seeds have been studied in the lab and have been shown in the laboratory to inhibit colon cancer cell invasion, decrease LDL oxidation, and decrease platelet aggregation. They are taken as supplements for cardiovascular protection or at least marketed that way. See, Exercise Benefits Even the Oldest Old.

Grapes also have expanded the life span of fruit flies and may help in combating Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. But the studies you want to look at should focus on any human results as far as health benefits. In other words, grape seed extract thins the blood. But grapes may contribute to high insulin levels as compared to grape seed extract without the sugars.

Scientists have tested strawberry, blackberry, and cherry extracts for health benefits such as reducing pain stemming from inflammation (tart cherries) and blackberries. Now articles are appearing after all the research has been done for years on the health benefits of berries–articles questioning whether the public is being shown marketing health claims or real science when it comes to foods and supplements.

On the other hand, each day, every cell in your body withstands 10,000 individual strikes by free radicals, according to the Life Extension magazine article, “The Secret Behind Acai.” So what would the average consumer require to be convinced and be able to separate health benefits of berries, for example from health claims made on packages of foods?

U.S. consumers are being misled by the health claims made on the packaging of foods and supplements, according to because those claims do not undergo the same scientific rigor required for such claims on medications, according to a new report by the Institute of Medicine, noted in the Health Day news article, “Health Claims on Foods May Not Be Well-Grounded,”

Should you believe what you read on a box of cereal that proclaims the breakfast food will lower your cholesterol? Think about it. Has the labeling claims had to pass the same government standards as the claims on the packaging of a cholesterol-lowering drug? What can you believe about food packaging as related to health benefit claims?

In marketing food packages, are standards lower than labeling for marketing commercial drugs? Food supplements or even packaged foods don’t have as high a go-ahead level as commercial drugs need? Why?

The big issue is whether to believe health claims for foods

Is there a role for the FDA to develop a way in which those health claims can be be better evaluated? Does the FDA even have resources, staff, and money to look at health claims on food packaging or supplements?

The health claims may be made regarding beneficial effects on biomarkers, which are a measure of a biological process, such as blood pressure or cholesterol. A cereal might be sold to consumers as being good for the heart when, in fact, that clinical outcome has not been tested, according to the article. But when health studies are limited to laboratory research with fruit extracts in test tube-like equipment and not with human trials, what can you really believe about the claims?

If you look at most supplements, you’ll see that some use biomarkers to make health claims. But if you read the actual scientific studies, ask yourself is the claim made from the context? Is a claim made because lab studies showed rats, for instance, had health benefits from the item, under laboratory conditions?

Without FDA looking at the supplements, no packaging can make a health claim of diagnosing or treating any type of disease. Only a drug can do that, according to the FDA’s laws. So no claims can be made as far as curing or treating a real disease. So the only claim left to food or supplement packagers is that the item inside the bottle can be used as a dietary supplement.

When it comes to whole foods, such as purple berries, even though experiments were made in laboratories or test tubes, common sense tells you that people eating a vegan diet or raw vegan foods for a few weeks can reverse some types of diseases caused by a lack of that type of nutrition. You can’t make any health claims that any specific food can treat or diagnose a disease.

For example, if you buy a pomegranate or grape seed extract, all the marketing claims a manufacturer can make on a food product is that it “helps support or maintain normal, healthy blood pressure.” You can’t make a claim in any advertisement that the food item or extract will lower the blood pressure of someone who wants to avoid taking drugs. That’s not legal, according to FDA rules.

You will be persecuted if you’re a manufacturer of a food item making a claim that some food or food extract will treat a disease. Only a “big pharmaceutical drug label” can make that claim legally. Check out the article, Angina Often Affects Quality of Life .

But if you publish a magazine on health, for example, what you can legally do is show a list of references to studies that showed that invasion by cancer cells, for example, were inhibited by anthocyanins. You can say, (which you can read in the Life Extension article,) that the antioxidants found in freeze-dried acai berry extract have been shown under laboratory conditions to “enter human cells in a fully-functional form and effectively neutralize free radicals at very low doses.” But you can’t say that if you buy acai extract, for example, that it will cure any disease.

What you can say is that pigmented plant foods rich in anthocyanins may serve as a “frontline defense against multiple diseases of aging.” In other words, you can say that blueberries, black currants, acai, and raspberries, have health benefits in general. Check out the article, Researchers Perfect the View of Heart Disease.

So getting health benefits from certain whole foods is more about what you can and cannot say in print, labeling on supplements or food packaging, or in advertising, than educating the public to look for themselves at those scientific studies online or in university libraries. For example, a review paper published in the Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology journal in 2008 outlined several known components of the Goji berries and their possible health benefits.

For example, Goji berries contain carotene and zeaxanthin, which are nutrients important for eye health. In addition, the fruit contains various water-soluble polysaccharides (a group of complex molecules) that appear to have beneficial effects on overall immunity, protection of body cells (from oxidation and aging), and brain health. See the article, Health Benefits of Goji Berry.

So what can you believe from the health claims? All you can surmise is that each year or two a new berry takes the front page on its health benefits. Three years ago it was exotic juices from Fiji or Hawaii. Two years ago it was mangosteen. Then last year, Goji berries. This year it’s Acai berries or extracts and juices. What will it be next year? Can berries help your heart against certain types of injuries if it helps rats’ hearts under laboratory conditions in various studies?

A decade ago, the health benefits of coconut milk were touted. Is it all about marketing? Why does the fruit of health restoration change each year? And the only logical place to go to right now is to look at the actual studies and think out what’s going to be helpful to humans when you read about experiments such as the study, “Berry Meals and Risk Factors Associated With Metabolic Syndrome.” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 3, 2010.

If you read the abstract of the study, will you be able to understand in plain language that the berry meals were nutritionally significant by enhancing the liver function? Will you be able to sift through the technical terms to understand how the various berries contributed positively to decrease low-grade inflammation and how the berries decreased the risk of cardiovascular diseases?

Redox signaling: The capacity of the body to heal itself

If you want to define “redox signaling,” it’s about teaching people to understand the capacity of the body to heal itself. The scientific community also is studying redox signaling. In fact, redox research is at the forefront of biomedical research in how people can cure themselves of various human diseases. Can you heal your body or improve the odds if you live in a neighborhood of high traffic and polluted air and can’t afford to move?

To define redox signaling, it’s actually a process that examines how reactive molecules communicate between and within cells. Your mitochondria (mtDNA) produce molecules in every cell along with adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that fuels your cells and body.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is considered by biologists to be the energy currency of life. It’s the high-energy molecule that stores the energy you need to do just about everything humans do. It is present in the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm of every cell, and essentially all the physiological mechanisms that require energy for operation obtain it directly from the stored ATP. (Guyton).

As food in the cells is gradually oxidized, the released energy is used to re-form the ATP so that the cell always maintains a supply of this essential molecule. One set of these molecules is responsible for activating antioxidants that fight free radicals and minimize oxidative stress. The second set of reactive molecules in intra and intercellular damage control communications, cellular protection and the healing response.

Redox signaling is vital to the body, but your cells lose the ability to heal themselves as you age. Have scientists really found a way to keep your body repairing your own cells, healing yourself when you have grown older, for example over age 70? For further information about redox signaling, approximately 100 publications were published last month on the topic in medical and scientific journals.

Check out the ASEAScience blog. But you have to look at the big picture for yourself and see what the medical research is showing. The entire science of redox signaling revolves around studying what happens at the cellular level with the basic premise that you live at the cellular level and that your body is naturally programmed, that is hardwired to heal and to repair itself. That means you’re programmed for health. Your cells were made for replacing themselves. As you age, that ability diminishes.

Can you protect your body’s ability to repair damaged cells due to air pollution?

Or you lack the ability to repair damaged cells, if you have certain diseases. So to protect each of your cell’s ability to repair and replace (caring and repairing) itself, there is a specialized set of molecules called redox signaling molecules. Your body manufactures these molecules continuously all day and night. As you age, your body becomes less efficient at repairing and replacing your cells. Are you trying to buy the fountain of youth? And how do you know what really works?

How do you tell the difference between healing and the placebo effect, which also can heal without you spending money if you have faith in the placebo? That’s what some of the reseach also is about. Young children operate at nearly 100% efficiency in what scientists call “the healing response,” a 70 year-old is operating at only 10% efficiency. So if you want to define what aging is about at the molecular level, then the definition of aging is reduction in your efficiency of your healing response.

And what you need to increase the efficiency of your healing response is to find a redox signaling supplement that works to increase the efficiency of your healing response as you age. Your supplement should increase your body’s ability to protect, repair, and replace cells. But does a supplement exist that works and is not a placebo? How do you tell the difference if you have no science training?

Can activating anti-oxidants help fight air pollution effects?

Who’s watching the consumer? And how much does the average shopper know about what really allows a cell to repair itself when it has aged or has some specific disease or condition? Redox signaling molecules are what your body creates to support the vital functions of your immune system. Those molecules are what your body manufactures within your cells. You already know how important they are for healing. One set of these molecules is responsible for activating antioxidants.

The other set of molecules are essential for cellular communication, cellular protection, and the healing response. So any food or nutritional supplement you take has to activate antioxidants and at the same time switch on the healing response. Your body makes these molecules. But is there really a good source of help out there that works in people over age 70 with a healing response operating at only 10% of how it operated when that person was younger? Is rapid aging inevitable? Or can it be slowed down, and if so, how much?

Is there an affordable supplement that works to help your body make its own molecules for healing even when you’re over age 70? Is the body the only source? Or is there some supplement that scientists have agreed upon that works? What researchers look for is how to balance those reactive molecules which can clean up free radical damage caused by oxidative stress at the cellular levels.

These questions are all about what the average shopper is concerned. You read news reports of how air pollution when driving in or living near heavy traffic damages the brain. When cells and tissues are damaged, by everyday living, they send out redox signaling messages for help. This starts a cascade of messengers that are quickly spread throughout the affected area where they call for action to start the healing process. For further information, check out the key words ‘Redox Signaling’ when you look through the various online medical databases such as PubMed.gov.

The science behind healing

You might wish to take a look at the book on the science behind healing written by Dr. Samuelson PhD, the scientist who discovered a method to stabilize redox signaling molecules. His book is online as a PDF file document, The Science of Healing Revealed. Listen to an audio file talk from the medical physicist on the topic of finding ways to stabilize “redox signaling.” There’s a talk on how cells function and other talks on the nervous system. Also check out the two uTube videos on the topic: Video 1 and Video 2.

If you’re looking for a product, check out the Avant Garde Wellness site. But as a watcher of watchers for shoppers, please check out the science and make sure anything you buy works before you buy the marketing. It’s the scientific facts you may want to explore and research. Ask yourself, what works and who has proven the facts behind the research? What numerous ways are there out there that are free that you can utilize to slow down aging and switch off those gene tags?

And what has science said about a fountain of youth that allows the body to repair itself even at an advanced age or through an illness or condition? Check the facts. Knowledge is important. What to ask? Look at studies that show the results of research and how has it worked. Ask yourself: what can help cells repair and heal even when you’re old? Do you need a way to make your age-shortened telomeres longer?

Resources

Autism and Air Pollution — Are They Related? | News | KCET.

Car pollution linked to autism | Fox News.

Air pollution may double risk of autism, USC study concludes – KPCC.

Discovered: A link between air pollution and autism? – The Week.

USC Researchers Link Autism With Breathing Air Pollution « CBS News.

Study: Autism Linked to Air Pollution From Traffic – US News and World Report.

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