The debate between nature and nurture may never end as both sides continue to discover more evidence. This time, the nurture side can call on this latest research linking air pollution and children’s mental health to bolster their argument. While we know that mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and others do run in families (nature and genetics), this study demonstrates that the air children breath does effect mental health diagnoses years later.
Most who care for children or watch the news today realize that we have mental health crisis in our younger generation. Prior to 2020, the conditions inside schools with bullying and school violence were rattling enough to cause depression and anxiety. With 2020’s complete disruption of the fabric of society and its effects on schools, both adults and their children saw worsening mental health diagnoses including suicides. So far, little has been done on a wider scale to reverse these trends.
While these psychosocial effects have clearly impacted the younger generation quite adversely, some have long asked whether we as a society are also poisoning ourselves. Other studies have linked various toxins with adverse health outcomes including a plethora of neuropsychiatric conditions. In our office, we definitely see a high rate of toxicity in those with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, autism, and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). We also see many with anywhere from mild to severe anxiety and depression who have mold toxicity as the underlying cause.
Between the broader research and our own experience, we therefore are not surprised by this latest finding linking childhood air pollution exposure to a few different psychiatric illnesses. By following 14,000 infants born between 1991 and 1992 in southwest England through into young adulthood and comparing their residences to known areas of air pollution, they were able to correlate air pollution with mental health. They used available measures of nitrogen dioxide, fine particulate matter, and noise pollution compared to home addresses for the children from prenatal months through 12 years of age. Then evaluations for depression, anxiety, and psychotic experiences were made at ages 13,18, and 24 years.
The researchers found that elevated levels of fine particulate matter during pregnancy and childhood correlated with higher rates of psychotic experiences. This fine particulate matter during pregnancy was also associated with depression. Interestingly, higher noise pollution during childhood and adolescence correlated with increased odds for anxiety.
Given that almost two-thirds of those who develop a mental illness do so before age 25 years, the potential for early life exposures as contributors to mental health is high. From other research, there are multiple pathways by which this could occur. The toxins could damage the blood brain barrier. They could cause direct damage to nerve cells or disrupt normal functioning of neurotransmitters. The toxins could cause oxidative stress.
As we in the older generation look ahead, we must not forget to look back. We have a responsibility to provide an opportunity for a future to our children. We cannot do everything for our children, but we should consider the impacts of pollution our society produces on their mental health after reading this article. We should support efforts at a state and national policy level to hold industry responsible for safe practices. We should make residential choices based on known measures of potential exposures, avoiding living near industrial areas if at all possible. At the very least we must educate ourselves and educate others on these issues if we are to provide our children with hope for a healthier, more abundant life.
Original Article:
Joanne B. Newbury, Jon Heron, James B. Kirkbride, Helen L. Fisher, Ioannis Bakolis, Andy Boyd, Richard Thomas, Stanley Zammit. Air and Noise Pollution Exposure in Early Life and Mental Health From Adolescence to Young Adulthood. JAMA Network Open, 2024; 7 (5): e2412169 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.12169
Thanks to Science Daily:
University of Bristol. “Prenatal exposure to air pollution associated with increased mental health risks.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 May 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240528134224.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
