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 ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a degenerative disease in
which nerve cells break down over time. ALS affects fewer than
20,000 people in the U.S. each year, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The disease is progressive, eventually affecting the ability to
chew, swallow, speak and breathe. In 2014, the ALS “Ice Bucket
Challenge” went viral on the internet and helped raise $115 million
for research toward a cure.
“The environmental risk of ALS has been a concern for many years,”
said senior author Dr. Eva L. Feldman of the Alfred Taubman Medical
Research Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Earlier studies have linked environmental exposures – including
exposure to pesticides - to the likelihood of having ALS, Feldman
told Reuters Health by email.
The new study may help shed light on the mechanisms of ALS, she
said.
Participants completed questionnaires on their exposure to toxins at
work and provided blood samples. Their blood was tested for
environmental pollutants including those found in pesticides and
flame retardants as well as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), banned
chemicals that still contaminate some rivers and other sites.
Using age, sex, educational level, smoking status and occupational
risk factors as well as blood test results, the researchers compared
101 adults with diagnosed or probable ALS and 110 adults without ALS,
on average around age 60.
Those with ALS were more likely to report pesticide exposure or to
have ever served in the military than those without the disease, the
researchers reported in JAMA Neurology.
“The cause of ALS remains complex and we believe that multiple
factors, including environmental exposures, play a role,” said
coauthor Dr. Stephen Goutman, director of the ALS clinic at the
University of Michigan. “A leading hypothesis is that underlying
genetic susceptibility factors combined with environmental risk
factors lead to toxicity that triggers the disease.”
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Chemicals in pesticides may affect the way nerves function, Goutman
told Reuters Health by email.
It’s too soon to know how much chemical exposure actually affects
ALS risk, or why military exposure would be related, Feldman said.
Everyone in the study had some of the environmental pollutants in
their blood, she said. But those with ALS had “clearly greater
exposure.”
“I am concerned about these associations and we, as a research
community, need to better understand what they mean and how they
relate to ALS onset and progression,” Goutman said.
In the meantime, he said, “we encourage individuals to focus on
helping to keep our environment pollutant free in any way, small or
large, that they can.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1TyfR1r JAMA Neurology, online May 9, 2016.
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