Vitamin B, a personal weapon to mitigate the effects of Air Pollution.

Vitamin B could attenuate the effects of most dangerous type of air pollution and could be used at personal level to protect against the ill effects. The study was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.[1]

The investigators looked at the effects caused by PM2.5, one of the most dangerous type of pollution on volunteers in a cross over trial.  PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair.

The fine PM finds its way into blood stream through lungs and causes pulmonary and placental inflammation, coagulopathies, endothelial dysfunction and hematological responses and eventually lead to heart attack and stroke.

Studies have also shown adverse effects on mother and neonates due to Pollution. Outdoor air pollution has been identified as a possible risk factor for preterm births across the globe according to a study published in Journal of Environment International online February 10, 2017. Air pollution identified as a possible risk factor for nearly 3 million preterm births every year.

Scientist also suspect that exposure to PM2.5 can cause "epigenetic" changes to our cells leading to mutations that can damage our health.

WHO recently estimated that 92% of the world's population lives is exposed to dangerous levels of pollution exceeding the recommended threshold.[2]

WHO map depicting global air pollution 

In this cross over study, 10 volunteers were exposed to clean air and given placebo as supplements to know the baseline levels. Than the same 10 persons were exposed to polluted air and given placebo for 4 weeks. Lastly the individuals received polluted air but this time with Vitamin B supplementation (2.5 mg/d folic acid, 50 mg/d vitamin B6, and 1 mg/d vitamin B12), respectively.

The researchers looked at epigenome-wide methylation before and after each exposure. PM2.5 induced methylation changes in genes involved in mitochondrial oxidative energy metabolism.

PM2.5 depleted 11.1% of the mitochondrial DNA content and B-vitamin supplementation attenuated the PM2.5 effect by 102% (P= 0.01).

Andrea A. Baccarellia, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York "Future studies, especially in heavily polluted areas, are urgently needed to validate our findings and ultimately develop preventive interventions using B vitamins to contain the health effects of air pollution," said Baccarelli.

"While emission control and regulation is the backbone of prevention, high exposures are, unfortunately, the rule still in many megacities throughout the world," she further added.

Although this study has small sample size, it helps fill the critical knowledge gap regarding ways of personal protection at individual level. People around the globe use all kind of masks, scarf but nothing was known about taking supplementation to mitigate the effects at cellular level.

 We as individuals do not have the choice to determine the type of air we breathe in; government regulation implementation will go a long way in protecting the society members and society against the effects of Global Warming.

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[1] http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/03/07/1618545114.abstract

[2] http://www.who.int/phe/publications/air-pollution-global-assessment/en/