Scientists Now Think Red Tide and Other Algae Blooms Cause Alzheimers and Parkinsons
Southwest Florida’s water quality stinks. Literally.
Florida is no stranger to algae blooms — small flare ups of blue-green algae in rivers and lakes and red tide on the coast are not uncommon.
What is different this year is the scale.
More tourism and fisheries businesses have suffered than in years past, and what’s worse more wildlife has washed up dead on beaches, and more people have become sick from their effects (including our pets!), with no indications that the red tide is letting up anytime soon.
The growth of algae blooms is normally limited by the nutrients that are available in rivers, lakes, and oceans. When the amount of nutrients flowing into the waterways are at safe, natural levels, the amount of algae is kept at safe normal levels. But when man-made sources (like nutrient runoff) provide an increase in delicious nutrients for the algae to feed off of, the algae blooms grow, sometimes to catastrophic levels — like we’re seeing in Florida right now.
So where do all these nutrients come from?
The majority comes from fertilizer that is carried by rainwater runoff although it can often come from regulated sources like waste-water treatment facilities. Chemical fertilizers commonly used are often incorrectly or over-applied (whether used on farm fields, lawns, or golf courses) and typically the first heavy rain that comes along washes much of the huge amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus entering tributaries that eventually lead to the ocean.
How does this affect us, biologically — long term?
A paper published by Royal Society Proceedings B suggests: chronic exposure to an environmental toxin may increase the risk of neurodegenerative illness.
A neurodegenerative disease is an umbrella term that encompasses Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease (MND). The causes of these diseases still remain mostly unknown, and consequently the roles that environmental factors play are poorly understood.
Researchers fed vervet monkeys a toxin produced by blue-green algae that ultimately resulted in protein deposits in the brain that proved to be consistent with those seen in human Alzheimer’s.
While we’ve known for decades that BMAA was toxic, this is the first time it has been shown to directly cause disease. BMAA was first suspected as a neurotoxin when it was linked to the Alzheimer’s-like illness in Guam. When the search for a genetic link turned up nothing, environmental triggers became the focus. A link was eventually found between BMAA and the cycad seeds villagers used to make flour and ultimately into tortillas.
These findings provide evidence for what we’ve long suspected, implicating a widely distributed toxin in a increasingly alarming human health problem: dementia.
BMAA is made by blue-green algae (more commonly known as cyanobacteria) and has evolved over 3.5 billion years to grow in both fresh and salt water. It can be found everywhere, from the desert crusts of Qatar, to the thermal pools of Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming.
Blooms frequently occur where nutrients are high, usually in areas where agricultural run-off occurs (which can be detrimental in areas with high farmland), and can be identified by their bright green colour and putrid smell. And as global temperatures rise, these blooms are increasing in size and frequency.
Even more concerning there is evidence that BMAA can be absorbed into the proteins of grain crops if they’re irrigated with contaminated water, and BMAA concentrates in seafood when it grows in waters where blooms flourish, including shellfish like mussels, pink shrimp, prawns and lobsters.
People who live by lakes subject to frequent algal blooms have an increased risk of contracting MND and the risk is even higher if you live downwind.
So if BMAA is already distributed throughout the environment, meaning we’ve all been potentially exposed to some degree, why don’t we all have some form of dementia?
Scientific modeling is suggesting that multiple “triggers” are required for any of these diseases to manifest. It’s likely you need a combination of genetic susceptibility, in addition to exposure to any number of environmental toxins (including BMAA) and other number of triggers unknown as of yet.
In the meantime, the best advice is to take precautions — reduce your risk of exposure to BMAA by staying away from green, smelly blooms. Don’t drink the water! And always take heed of warning signs.
Even though we now know BMAA can cause disease, there is still not yet a cure, so there’s a lot more work to do!
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