Diabetes and Parkinson's showed similar patterns, even though drugs have been getting better and even though rates of other age-related diseases have been dropping. Together, de la Monte said, the data strongly suggest that the rising rates of death from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes are due not to genes or an aging population, but to exposure to nitrosamines. "It was so shocking," de la Monte said. For "ages," she said, doctors have been taught that these diseases were determined by genetics. "This clearly shows it couldn't possibly be genes." The theory is intriguing and worth pursuing, said neurotoxicologist Deborah Cory-Slechta, but it's far too soon to blame nitrosamines alone for Alzheimer's and other age-related diseases. Scientists haven't yet documented rising rates of nitrosamines in our bodies, for one thing. And the theory may be too simplistic. "Lots of other things changed in that time frame that aren't being taken into account," said Cory-Slechta, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. "I don't think most of these kinds of complicated diseases are caused by a single factor of any kind." Related Links: |
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