Florida’s continuing struggles with blooms of blue-green algae have raised anew questions about the effect of the pond scum and its cyanobacteria on longterm health. One outlier idea is that a toxin associated with cyanobacteria causes, or at least contributes, to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
[See “Medical Mystery” in November 2011’s Florida Trend]
Trend's article described how researchers affiliated with the University of Miami — neurologist Walter Bradley, neuroscientist Deborah Mash and marine biologist Larry Brand — were playing an important role in a consortium of scientists researching and advancing the idea, which is not generally endorsed by Alzheimer’s researchers.
Fortune magazine in its latest issue takes a deep dive into the same subject, and Florida researchers again feature prominently in the scientific sleuthing