Alzheimer’s risk disease in Wealthy Nations

   Could GOOD hygiene cause Alzheimer's disease. People in wealthy countries are at 'greater risk' as they have less contact with bacteria. People living in wealthier countries with better access to clean water and good hygiene may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Medical new reported. According to Medical News Today, they noted that countries with better access to clean drinking water, lower rates of infectious disease and a greater percentage of the population residing in urban areas all had higher rates of  Alzheimer's disease.

• Study looked at link between cleanliness and Alzheimer's in 192 countries
• Countries with clean drinking water have 9% higher Alzheimer's rates
• Countries with less infectious disease have 12 percent more Alzheimer's

    The researchers suggested the 'hygiene hypothesis' was behind the difference. This is the theory that an excessively clean lifestyle leaves our immune systems out of balance and unable to combat many germs. The study of health data from 192 nations found those with a relatively low risk of infection had more patients with Alzheimer's. Countries where populations have access to clean drinking water, such as France and the UK, showed a 9% higher Alzheimer's rate compared with countries that had less than half the relative access to clean water. Countries with significantly lower rates of infectious disease, such as ireland and Switzerland, had a 12 % higher Alzheimer's rate compared with countries such as Ghana and China, who have high rates of infectious disease. Overall, differences in levels of sanitation, infectious disease and urbanization accounted for 33 percent, 36 percent and 28 percent of the variation in Alzheimer's rate between countries. In particular, T-cells are to be affected. T-cells have a variety of functions, including attacking and destroying foreign invaders and marshalling other parts of the immune system. Regulatory T-cell deficiency is linked to the type of inflammation commonly found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. This is because regulatory T-cell numbers peak at various points in life, for example at adolescence and middle age.