Delhi-NCR air pollution: Expert on how toxic air can impact our mental health

Air pollution can be toxic for human brain and in combination with other factors could cause various mental health disorders. Here's all you want to know.

Air pollution can be damaging to nearly all parts of our body. Numerous studies have found how toxic pollutants make their way through nose or mouth to land in lungs and cause breathing issues, while long term exposure to pollutants can damage blood vessels in kidney causing it to malfunction. Air pollution's impact on heart is also being studied and it has been revealed that exposure to particulate matter and nitrogen oxides can prematurely age blood vessels and contribute to a more rapid build-up of calcium in the coronary artery leading to cardiac ailments. Several studies have now found out that apart from physical health, air pollution is also detrimental to our brain and mental health, and thus giving rise to several psychiatric disorders.

AIR POLLUTION IS TOXIC TO HUMAN BRAIN

"Air pollution is very closely linked to depression and anxiety and the literature is not very old. Over the past decade, researchers have found high levels of air pollution which may damage a child's cognitive abilities, increase an adult's risk of cognitive decline and possibly even contribute to factors like depression. While obviously no mental health illness can be pinned on environmental exposures alone, the studies that are coming up these days are adding to the growing evidence that air pollution is toxic for our human brain and may interact with our genetic and biological factors on various levels. To impact and it kind of effects if and when some people get mental health disorders and how severe these disorders become," says Mehezabin Dordi, Clinical Psychologist, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital.

A large scale study in 2019 said that high levels of air pollution was closely related to psychiatric conditions and that people who are exposed to high level of pollution were likely to suffer from psychiatric conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and even personality disorder.

AIR POLLUTION AFFECTS CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

"There has been increasing evidence that these toxins also impact the brain and are linked to several diseases of the central nervous system. Air pollution can also interfere with the brain's ideal functioning, which ultimately leads to disruption and death of neurons that are the brain cells and neurotransmitters that are the chemicals that the brain produces," says Dordi.

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