Environmental pollution - schizophrenia link

Personally I don’t know if I buy into this theory

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Don’t “but” it…take it for free! It’s true… I’ve known this for some time, though I usually talk more about chemical pollutants in foods, certain additives and such.

This following explains why every few days when i lived in the city I would have an impulsive urge to escape and drive to the woods and mountains.

"Each group of mice was exposed to levels of air pollution equivalent to those seen in rush hour traffic.

After four hours of pollution exposure during two four-day periods, mice exposed to pollution experienced marked changes in behavior compared to mice living in an environment with filtered air.

“We see changes in learning produced by these exposures in males and females, and in levels of activity, and we saw deficits in memory in both males and females,” Cory-Slechta said. “We also had a measure of attention, looking at impulsive-like behaviors, which we only tested in males, and there too we saw the effects of postnatal exposure.”

Not only I couldn’t stand the smell of traffic fumes, especially trucks and buses, but I knew instinctively the air in the city couldn’t possibly be good for anyone.
Something always oppressed my mind in the city so I could not stay there continually. I was able to cut out most bad food additives, but what does one do about the environment of the city…? Move! So I did.

As far as the lasting effects, I am not sure… for me somethings changed for the better immediately when I got away from the city environment, though a lot of that may have been sensory related.

“These effects were lasting, with researchers reporting behavioral differences between the two groups of mice even 10 months after the initial pollution exposure.”

10 months is about half the life span of most mice, so that is awhile.

There is also another factor…airwave pollution which is also known to affect the brain…talking about continual exposure to microwave, radio frequencies, etc… I know there is directed RF at times, but I’m not even talking about that…just the sheer volume of RF waves that permeate the atmosphere, and will be usually more concentrated in the cities where there are multitudes of communication devices and transmitters, large electrical equipment, etc… of course you could live next to a cell phone tower in the country and get the same effect…

I would be more patient with this if it wasn’t for all the articles I’ve read…

Living in the city/ country is what causes it.

Eating red meat / being a vegetarian causes it

being over / under active causes it

Having too much/ not enough exercise causes it

If you mother touched cat poo, while pregnant causes it.

if your mother is too much involved / not involved enough in child rearing causes it.

If your mother was too active / inactive while pregnant causes it.

If you live in a place that is too wet and cloudy / dry and sunny causes it.

CBT is great/ detrimental for SZ.

ECT is great / detrimental for SZ

If your parents were too old/ too young when they had you causes it.

I end up ignoring a lot of this after a while… it just makes me angry.

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Yeah I’ve read a lot of that too, some seems ridiculous. Some can contribute…and there’s a balance for everything…

As far as the pollution, I think it can be a contributing factor and cause changes. however, I wasn’t raised in the city and i had stuff going on as a child.
I just noticed in my 20s when I moved from the country to the city due to marriage, I started having problems there.

Real causes are probably a combination of many factors, some of which can be environmental, and others our perceptions and minds own interpretation of things.

Some of these theories are a crock of crap - it seems like they are just milling all these different theories together for the fun of it. I do believe that stress plays a role in the development of SZ, this and genetics

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That makes a lot more sense to me. Stress can do amazing damage to the body and mind. With how I was raised… it had to be genetic.

Pollution (especially exhaust fumes) shrink the brain tissue. How else would anyone see the logic in driving for 3 hours to go 60 miles? Every time I have to drive to the Bay Area my brain has a temper-tantrum until I stop in for a plate of Meatballs at IKEA to calm it down.

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