The Effect of Natural Geochemical Background on Neurological and Mental Health
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REVIEW PAPER
The Effect of Natural Geochemical Background on Neurological and Mental Health Fyodor S. Kot1 Received: 26 February 2019 / Revised: 30 August 2019 / Accepted: 6 September 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract The natural geochemical (geogenic) background is exerted through the local drinking water, food grown on the local soils and the atmospheric aerosols inhaled. The misbalance of certain elements, in the most acute case, may lead to the development of so-called ‘endemic’ symptoms and diseases. Compared to anthropogenic contamination, the effect of the geogenic background may have an implicit character due to its not extreme, chronic and pervading action. Moreover, the brain must be viewed somewhat separately to the other body organs from the toxicological point of view because of the specific protective blood–brain (hematoencephalic) barrier. Nowhere is homeostasis and the control of the constant of internal milieu more pronounced than in the brain. However, certain metal compounds, presumably of lipophilic character, can overcome the natural defence and are especially dangerous to the nervous system. The neurologically detrimental geogenic excess was determined and assumed for Al, As, Ba, Cd, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, Se, Tl and Zn. Moreover, deficiency of certain elements can cause disturbances to the brain functioning. These elements are Cu, Fe, I, Li and Se. There are also elements for which small-dose neurological effects were described and the natural geochemical anomalies have been reported. These are B, Br, Rb, Sn and, possibly, others. Nevertheless, the information on their chronic environmental neurological activity is still a matter of future studies. In this review, we focus on the geogenic background as a cause of neurological and mental effects on human health. Keywords Geochemical background · Geogenic · Metals · Metalloids · Element availability · Toxic effects · Hematoencephalic barrier · Neurological and mental health · Epidemiology · Endemic disease
Introduction The earth’s surface is not uniform. It varies considerably in composition of rocks and sediments; however, it has a rather limited variety of basic minerals. The local climate and biotic activity determine the weathering of the rocks and sediments, producing characteristic chemical compositions and reactivity of the soils and natural waters. As a result, the specific geochemical (geogenic) background is formed Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-019-00322-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Fyodor S. Kot [email protected] 1
Department of Agricultural, Water and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003 Haifa, Israel
characterised by abundance, mobility and availability of the chemical elements (Kovalsky 1958; Bowen 1966; Perelman 1972; Mills 1996). The living organisms are an integral part of the environment they occupy and th
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