THE ZINC LINK

Clean water is essential to clean health. When moving to a new city or looking to buy a home, most people will see what schools are in the area, check the cost of living and examine other factors that are important to them. However, few will consider the effects of this decision on their health.

According to new research, where you live could affect your health. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center doctor Randolph B. Schiffer, M.D., chairperson of the Department of Neuropsychiatry, is one of several authors of a study recently published in the Archives of Environmental Health that examined a small town in Illinois with a disproportionate number of multiple sclerosis cases.

Schiffer and his colleagues found a possible link to a zinc smelter that had operated in the town of DePue, Ill., for more than 100 years. Zinc contamination previously was found in soil and water samples.

"The study is of interest in suggesting a possible link between metal-based contamination in the environment and a neurologic disease," Schiffer said. "Multiple sclerosis is known to be related to something in the environment, at least partly, but it’s been a great mystery for medical science to figure out what that is. One possibility is that there are contaminants in the environment in various places, which affect the immune system in a way that can predispose someone to the disease."

The study showed that during a 20-year period, from 1970 to 1990, an abnormal number of new cases of multiple sclerosis were diagnosed in the town of 4,000. Although the total number of new cases was low, only nine during the 20 years, that is a significant increase from what research indicates would be typical – around three – for a town of that size, Schiffer said.

"Even though the numbers are small, it’s still a cluster, at least using our mathematical tests," he said.

Schiffer also worked with the Texas Department of Health a second study in El Paso, which examined groups of people from certain neighborhoods who might have experienced increased lifetime risks for multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s white cells begin attacking the myelin coverings around nerves. The disease is often characterized by attacks and remissions and affects women more than men. It is one of the leading causes of disability in young adults, behind only trauma from auto accidents.

Schiffer said the exact causes of multiple sclerosis are not yet known but this study provides one possible cause or contributing factor.

"Most metal and most pollutants of all types suppress the immune system," Schiffer said. "Most environmental contaminants will make the person more vulnerable to infections or cancer because those are low immune system states. But there is one metal, zinc, which is a hyperimmune metal. That is, in some laboratory situations, the correct concentration of zinc will actually increase immune system response. So that makes zinc a very interesting metal scientifically and potentially one that could predispose someone to diseases, like multiple sclerosis, which are autoimmune or hyperimmune diseases."