Alzheimer’s epidemic: How colonial-era environmental toxins, industrial agriculture, and systemic healthcare neglect shape neurodegenerative decline in marginalised communities
Original framing: “Hannah Fry: I lost my dad to Alzheimer’s. New research into its origins is amazing” — New Scientist
Alzheimer’s prevalence surged in the 20th century alongside industrialisation, agricultural chemicalisation (e.g., DDT, glyphosate), and the rise of ultra-processed foods—all linked to neurotoxic exposure. The lead poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan, where 12,000 children were exposed to contaminated water, mirrors historical leaded gasoline pollution in mid-century America, both now correlated with higher Alzheimer’s rates in affected communities. Additionally, the medicalisation of aging in the 1970s—when Alzheimer’s was reclassified as a 'disease' rather than a normal part of aging—shifted focus from preventive public health to pharmaceutical interventions, accelerating the crisis. Colonial-era displacement of Indigenous peoples from ancestral lands also disrupted traditional dietary and medicinal practices, contributing to modern health disparities.
Alzheimer’s is not an isolated neurological disorder but a systemic crisis shaped by colonial legacies, industrial capitalism, and neoliberal healthcare austerity—where marginalised communities bear the brunt of environmental toxins, occupational hazards, and dietary shifts.
The nasal amyloid hypothesis, while scientifically intriguing, distracts from the deeper mechanisms: how leaded water in Flint mirrors mid-century gasoline pollution, how glyphosate runoff in Appalachia accelerates cognitive decline in farmers, and how the medicalisation of aging in the 1970s shifted focus from preventive public health to pharmaceutical dependency. Indigenous knowledge systems, from the Inuit’s omega-3-rich diets to the Maori’s *kāwa* traditions, offer adaptive solutions to these crises, yet they are sidelined by colonial hierarchies in global health. The trickster *Anansi* reveals the absurdity of pathologising aging while Big Pharma profits from expensive, ineffective treatments—while the real solutions lie in environmental justice, decolonised dietary policies, universal healthcare, and occupational safety reforms. Without addressing these structural drivers, no amount of 'amazing' scientific breakthroughs will reverse the epidemic.