Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 21, 2019 Page 25
Taking the plunge at 61, Andie the ageless
SHE was a rom-com darling in the
nineties, known for her porcelain
skin and long, luscious locks.
And Andie MacDowell looks as
fresh as ever wearing a dramati-
cally plunging dress aged 61.
The Four Weddings And A Funeral
actress posed confidently in the
structured, floral dress for the pre-
miere of black comedy Ready Or
Not in Los Angeles on Monday.
She finished her look with a pair
of black bow heels and a gold clutch
bag. Her age-defying beauty has
not gone unnoticed, with designers
clamouring to get the actress, who
started her career in the late 1970s
as a model, back on the catwalk.
Last year, to mark her 60th
birthday, she appeared in L’Oreal
Paris’s fashion show and she
recently described ageing as a
‘journey’, telling Vogue magazine:
‘There’s no time limit to beauty.’
Next month marks 30 years since
Sex, Lies And Videotape was
released, the film which propelled
Miss MacDowell to global fame. Her
daughter Margaret Qualley, 24, has
just made her A-list debut, along-
side Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.By Dominique HinesHow air pollution
DOUBLES the risk
of most common
form of blindness
Standout: Andie
MacDowell
gives a wave on
the red carpetLIVING in a polluted area
nearly doubles your risk of
developing the UK’s most
common form of blindness, a
major study suggests.
People exposed to heavy traffic
emissions are twice as likely to have
age-related macular degeneration
(AMD), researchers say.
Scientists found long-term exposure
to nitrogen dioxide – a pollutant
especially linked to old diesel cars –
increased the incidence of AMD
among over-50s by 91 per cent.
Among those living in areas with
high levels of carbon monoxide, which
is linked to petrol and diesel, there
was an 84 per cent rise. Although the
study was carried out in Taiwan,
where air pollution is far worse than in
Britain, experts say it is still a cause
for concern for city-dwellers.
Professor Chris Inglehearn, an expert
in molecular ophthalmology at the
University of Leeds, said: ‘This is an
interesting study but one that needs
to be interpreted with caution.
‘What they have shown is that AMD
tends to be more common in geo-
graphic locations that have high air
pollution. However, there are many
other disease risk factors that come
with life in such places.
‘A contribution to AMD risk from air
pollution is plausible and the findings
of the study do suggest that may be
the case, but a doubling of frequency
due to air pollution alone is harder tobelieve.’ AMD is the most common
cause of visual impairment among
adults in the UK.
Some 600,000 suffer from the condi-
tion – which causes blurred vision and
eventual blindness.
Researchers from China Medical
University in Taiwan studied the
health records of 40,000 people
between 1998 and 2010, of whom 1,442pollution and eye problems, merely
the statistical odds linking the two.
The scientists said previous research
has found that airborne pollution –
particularly nitrogen dioxide –
interferes with the central nervous
system and is associated with various
brain diseases.
This may explain how car emissions
can damage the retina at the back of
the eye, as the retina is part of the
central nervous system, they said.
Medical experts are increasingly
aware of the impact of traffic fumes on
human health worldwide, including
the increased risk of asthma, heart
disease and dementia.
More than 60,000 people are thought
to die early each year in the UK
because of air pollution, with 37
British cities persistently found to
have illegally high levels.
Comment – Page 16‘There are many
other factors’EXPOSURE to air pollution, particu-
larly in childhood, may raise the
risk of depression and bipolar dis-
order, a US-led study shows.
Researchers studied health insur-
ance data from 151million people
and found areas with the worst
pollution had a 27 per cent higher
rate of bipolar disorder and a 6
per cent higher rate of major
depression, PLOS Biology reports.
Data from Denmark showed thosegrowing up in the most polluted
areas had a rate of schizophrenia
almost 1.5 times higher than those
in the least polluted areas.
But Dr Daniel Maughan of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists said:
‘There are many environmental
factors which could contribute to
poor mental health for those peo-
ple living in areas of high pollu-
tion. It is therefore difficult to iso-
late poor air quality as the cause.’Fumes may trigger depression
developed AMD. They found the 25
per cent living in the most polluted
areas were nearly twice as likely to
develop AMD as the 25 per cent living
in the least polluted areas.
The study, published in the BMJ
Journal of Investigative Medicine, did
not look at the biological link betweenBy Ben Spencer
Medical CorrespondentHeyday: Andie in 1990. Right: Daughter Margaret acting with Brad Pitt90 Right: Daughter Margaret acting with Brad PittV3