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| | | From: Rene (Original Message) | Sent: 11/6/2006 11:05 PM |
Friday, 5 May 2000 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/738020.stm Parkinson's linked to insecticide use
Parkinson's causes muscle tremor Exposure to insecticides in the home may double a person's risk of developing Parkinson's disease, say researchers. Scientists suspect insecticide chemicals damage nerve cells in a vulnerable region of the brain, but cannot fully explain the link.
"Certain chemicals that an individual is exposed to in the environment may cause selective death of brain cells "
Dr Lorene Nelson, Stanford University Dr Lorene Nelson and colleagues at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, questioned 496 people newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease about their past use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in the home and garden. Another group of 541 people without the disease were asked similar questions and the two sets of answers compared. Use of insecticides at home was associated with the greatest risk of developing the disease. Parkinson's patients were more than twice as likely to have been exposed to the chemicals than the healthy participants. There was also an association with herbicides. However, exposure to insecticides in the garden, and fungicides, were not found to be risk factors. The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in San Diego, California. Association Dr Nelson said: "It is the first study to show a significant association between home pesticide use and the risk of developing Parkinson's disease. "Certain chemicals that an individual is exposed to in the environment may cause selective death of brain cells or neurons." Damage to nerve cells in a part of the brain called the basal ganglia leads to the muscle tremor and stiffness characteristic of the disease. Parkinson's is caused when brain cells that produce an important neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, are destroyed. Dr Nelson said. "If we could understand why these neurons are being killed in certain circumstances, we can then try and prevent it." Professor Adrian Williams, chairman of the Parkinson Disease Society's medical advisory panel, said: "This is the latest in a line of research which shows a suspected but as yet unproven link between pesticide exposure and development of Parkinson's disease. "We welcome any further research on this subject." |
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| | | From: Rene | Sent: 11/9/2006 1:12 AM |
At Least the Bugs Are Dead Pesticide use increases risk of Parkinson's disease, new study finds Exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, concludes a broad, long-term study. Researchers followed the health of 143,325 people since 1982 and found that those regularly exposed to pesticides had a 70 percent higher incidence of Parkinson's. The research, published in the Annals of Neurology, found that the amount of exposure seemed not to matter: occupational farmers, hobby gardeners, and determined home bug-sprayers all had the same increased risk. (Exposure to other harmful substances like asbestos and formaldehyde brought no increased risk of Parkinson's.) No specific pesticides were pegged as culprits, though past studies have suggested a link between the disease and the class of 'cides called organophosphates. Parkinson's disease affects about 6.3 million people worldwide and over a million in the U.S.; the disease debilitates muscle control and can severely reduce a person's ability to walk, talk, and maintain a pest-free lawn.
straight to the source: New Scientist, Roxanne Khamsi, 26 Jun 2006 straight to the source: Reuters, 26 Jun 2006 straight to the source: The Times, Jonathan Leake, 25 Jun 2006
from: http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2006/06/27/ more info in this thread: Parkinsons - At Least the Bugs are Dead |
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| | | From: Rene | Sent: 12/6/2006 4:31 PM |
Lifelong Health: Much Remains to be Learned About Parkinson's Disease By Dr. David Lipschitz The political season has brought newfound attention to a totally non-political issue: Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease. Since becoming afflicted with this devastating illness, Fox has done a great service in increasing awareness of Parkinson's, a movement disorder characterized by difficulty walking, problems with balance, rigidity and tremors.
Patients with Parkinson's disease tend to shuffle, don't swing their arms, have difficulty initiating walking and have trouble stopping. They can develop serious memory loss, depression, difficulty swallowing, sleep disorders and bowel and bladder problems. Eventually, many suffer almost complete loss of movement.
Parkinson's disease is caused by degeneration of cells in the substantia nigra, which is responsible for controlling gait, balance and muscle tone. Loss of these cells leads to an 80 percent decrease in dopamine, a chemical messenger responsible for the transport of signals from the substantia nigra to other parts of the brain.
Unfortunately, the cause is unclear, and there are many suspected factors. When detected in young adults (as Fox's was), Parkinson's disease is often inherited, and researchers have found mutations of a number of genes that may lead to the disease. However, most experts believe that a genetic predisposition leads to Parkinson's after exposure to environmental toxins or infection. For example, after the 1918 influenza epidemic, many who'd had influenza developed severe Parkinson's. Numerous medical conditions, including strokes, other degenerative diseases of the brain and many medications can lead to symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease. This is referred to as "Parkinsonism" or secondary Parkinson's disease. These conditions must be excluded before a patient can be diagnosed with Parkinson's. [my emphasis-RM]
To date, available therapies only relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but do not slow progression or offer the hope of a cure. Drug treatment aims at increasing the concentration of dopamine in the brain. Levodopa (sinemet), the oldest and the best drug, remains the cornerstone of treatment for Parkinson's. It is effective early in the disease but becomes less so with time. A host of other drugs have been developed that mimic dopamine and may also improve symptoms, but, with time, these too become ineffective.
Surgery is also useful in treating Parkinson's disease. The most encouraging is deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are inserted into the brain and connected by a wire to a tiny generator under the skin that continuously stimulates the brain and may help relieve symptoms, reduce the need for medication or make the drugs more effective.
With continued research, we can find a cure for Parkinson's disease. Currently, critical advances are occurring in how gene mutations cause Parkinson's. This may lead to therapies to prevent gene mutations or to mitigate the increased susceptibility to infections or toxins that precipitate the disease. Scientists are also trying to figure out what causes cell death in the substantia nigra, how inflammation may contribute and how cells can be protected from damage.
Research has also examined the value of inserting fetal tissue into the brain in the hope of producing brain cells capable of generating dopamine. Although some improvement was noted, results were not encouraging, and side effects were high.
Today stem cell research is being examined in the hope of finding a cure for Parkinson's disease. Stem cells derived from embryos can replicate any cell in the body. They can, for example, produce bowel cells, liver, kidney, bone marrow and nerve cells and many others. Not surprisingly, there is great hope for this line of research in leading to enormous breakthroughs in therapy. Scientists are investigating the use of stem cells to replace the damaged cells in the substantia nigra and cure Parkinson's disease. To date, advances have been small, but hope remains high. Because of controversy surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells, other sources of these cells are being pursued.
I compliment Fox for his courage and his willingness to be an advocate for those with Parkinson's disease. Research is the key to unlocking our understanding of this and all other diseases. Today, the research community is more advanced and more creative, and has more tools to understand and resolve disease. In my view, this creative approach will lead to the most exciting of scientific breakthroughs. I only hope that it will be done in a way that satisfies the concerns of everyone.
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Dr. David Lipschitz is the author of the book "Breaking the Rules of Aging." To find out more about Dr. David Lipschitz, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. Dr. David Lipschitz' e-mail address is askdrdavid @ msn.com. More information is available at www.drdavidhealth.com. From December 2, 2006, arcamax.com Health & Fitness News
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| | | From: Rene | Sent: 6/9/2007 11:29 PM |
Environmental factors linked to Parkinson's SUNNYVALE, Calif. (UPI) -- A collaboration of U.S. research facilities say environmental factors like pesticides and toxic agents are linked to the development of Parkinson's disease.
Investigators from Emory University, the University of California Los Angeles and the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, Calif., will present the findings at a conference in Pacific Grove, Calif., as part of the final meeting of the Collaborative Centers for Parkinson's Disease Environmental Research.
Among the findings:
-- The role of certain pesticides as potential risk factors for Parkinson's disease, a role suggested by both epidemiological statistics and laboratory evidence.
-- The threat of toxic agents to damage neurons by causing the accumulation of harmful proteins.
-- Intraneuronal protein aggregates as markers of Parkinson's pathology indicating that these aggregates could be formed as a consequence of toxic exposure.
-- The role of inflammation in the development of Parkinson's disease and the possibility that anti-inflammatory drugs could be beneficial to patients. |
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Pesticides May Be Linked To Parkinson Disease
9/1/2005:- Parkinson Disease is a brain disorder in which dopamine-producing brain cells are damaged. Dopamine is a chemical that allows coordinated functioning of the body’s muscles and movement. People with Parkinson Disease experience tremors, slowness of movement, rigidity, and difficulty with balance. The National Parkinson Foundation estimates that 1.5 million Americans currently suffer from Parkinson Disease, and approximately 60,000 are newly diagnosed each year. Research at Emory University by Dr. Tim Greenamyre has shown a connection between exposure to certain pesticides and the onset of Parkinson related symptoms in rats, including lowered levels of dopamine. The results of Dr. Greenamyre’s experiments support the idea that repeated exposure to pesticides may contribute to the incidence of Parkinson Disease in humans. A European study done by Anthony Seaton of the University of Aberdeen, UK, concluded that home gardeners and professional farmers who were routinely exposed to chemical pesticides were more likely to develop Parkinson Disease than people who were not exposed. Pesticide users with low exposure such as home gardeners were 9 percent more likely to develop the disease than non-users, and pesticide users with high exposure, such as conventional farmers were 43 percent more likely. There are many other factors in the development of Parkinson disease, but most researchers believe that a combination of genetic and environmental factors contribute to the cause. Pesticides may contribute to other neurological diseases also. Some pesticides, such as organophosphates, which are used on many food crops in the United States, work to kill pests by interfering with their nervous systems. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “Organophosphates affect the nervous system [of insects] by reducing the ability of cholinesterase, an enzyme, to function properly in regulating a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.�?Acetylcholine serves the function of transferring nerve impulses from nerve cells to muscle cells and other nerve cells. If it is not properly regulated, the nerves and muscles become over stimulated, causing symptoms such as weakness and paralysis. Acetylcholine functions in the human body in the same way as it does in insects, regulating nerve-nerve and nerve-muscle interactions. Therefore, we may infer that organophosphate pesticides, when present in high enough, persistent levels, may affect the human nervous system adversely. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has documented that most people in the US have the breakdown products of organophosphate pesticides in their urine. This is because people are routinely exposed to these pesticides from the air, water, and food they eat. If organic farming became the mainstream method of growing food, the risks of developing neurological disorders related to pesticide exposure would be greatly lowered. ~~ Cheryl Chaffee, 2005. [http://www.alternativemedicine.com/common/news/news_results.asp?task=Features&id=7184&storeID=02AD61F001A74B5887D3BD11F6C28169] The original article contains a number of links to additional information. |
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| | | From: Rene | Sent: 6/24/2008 4:37 PM |
Study Links Parkinson's Disease With Chemical Exposure
(NaturalNews) Scientists have now discovered additional evidence of a connection between Parkinson's disease and long-term exposure to pesticides. Parkinson's disease strikes movements like walking, talking and writing. Symptoms of the disease first tend to appear in patients over 50. These symptoms may include tremors and muscle rigidity. Approximately 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease every year. More than half a million Americans may be affected at any one time but this number is difficult to pinpoint accurately due to the high number of people who have the disease but have not yet had a formal diagnosis. The disease is chronic and progressive with patients' symptoms growing steadily worse over time.
A study of over 300 people with Parkinson's found that sufferers were more than two times as likely to have had heavy exposure to pesticides over their lifetime as other members of their family without the disease. The new research observed the lifetime pesticide exposure of over 300 Parkinson's patients. Over 200 of their healthy relatives were also included in the study as a control group. The results showed that patients with Parkinson's were 1.6 times more likely to report an exposure to pesticides in their lifetimes compared with the control group. Additionally, people with Parkinson's were 2.4 times more likely than healthy people to report heavy exposure to pesticides. Heavy exposure is defined as more than 215 days over a lifetime. Other prior studies have also pointed to a possible link between pesticide exposure and the disease and now public authorities are trying to decide whether these risks should be determined significant. A change in several genes has been identified as a precursor to the disease, however these variations are somewhat unusual and they only account for a small number of the incidence of the disease. The majority of cases are believed to be the result of a reaction between genes and the environment.
Pesticides may be contributing to nerve cell death in some people who have Parkinson's. It is unlikely to be the only cause of the disease, however. The strongest correlations were for people with Parkinson's who had been exposed to herbicides and insecticides such as organochlorides and organophosphates. There were no connections between Parkinson's disease and drinking well-water or living or working on a farm (two often used proxies for pesticide exposures). The participants in the study tended to be people who used a lot of pesticides in their homes and in their hobbies. As the evidence grows, the researchers are watching for enough biological evidence to conclude that Parkinson's is linked to pesticide exposure. The biological mechanism linking pesticides and Parkinson's is still not known. Future genetic studies of Parkinson's may consider the influence of pesticides because exposure to these chemicals might be what triggers the disease in people who are genetically predisposed. This study supports the connection between pesticides and Parkinson's and strengthens the fact that pesticides play a key role.
About the author
Jo Hartley
Wife, Mother of 8, and Grandmother of 2
Jo is a 40 year old home educator who has always gravitated toward a natural approach to life. She enjoys learning as much as possible about just about anything! [http://www.loftymatters.com]
From: [http://www.naturalnews.com/023151.html]
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