Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Parkinson's Disease
Pesticides Link
jai @ misc.health.alternative wrote:
The Pioneer
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Indraprasth (Pioneer News Service) - Sustained exposure
to pesticides could risk higher rate of contacting brain
degenerative Parkinson's disease, a Harvard study
reported on Monday.
People with long-term, low-level exposure to pesticides
have a 70 per cent higher incidence of Parkinson's
disease than people who have not been exposed much to the
toxic chemicals, a team at the Harvard School of Public
Health reported in Annals of Neurology. Their study
supports previous research that suggests pesticides can
be linked with Parkinson's. The disease is caused by the
destruction of key brain cells. Patients show signs of
tremors, which degenerates into paralysis. There is no
cure for the disease, which is estimated to affect 6.3
million people worldwide.
Alberto Ascherio, an associate professor of nutrition and
epidemiology and colleagues examined data from a 2001
American Cancer Society survey of 1,43,325 people. The
researchers contacted people who had been diagnosed with
Parkinson's.
The American Cancer Society was studying factors for
cancer risk and all the people had reported on eating and
lifestyle habits and environmental exposures. More than
5,200 men and 2,600 women reported exposure to
pesticides. After adjusting for age, sex, and other risk
factors for Parkinson's disease, the researchers found a
70 per cent higher incidence of the disease among these
nearly 8,000 people than among people who reported no
exposure.
More men than women said they had been exposed to
pesticides and those reporting exposure were more likely
to report their occupation as farmer, rancher or
fisherman, the researchers said.
People who had other jobs and who reported pesticide
exposure most likely were using the chemicals at home or
while gardening, the researchers speculated.
Exposure to asbestos, chemicals, acids, solvents, or coal
or stone dust was not associated with a higher risk, the
researchers said.
"Future studies should seek to identify the specific
compounds associated with risk," the researchers said.
Last edited by madthumbs on Mon May 28, 2007 9:23 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Quote:
Will this bug be key to Parkinson's mystery?
UA research on fruit flies finds mutations, toxic exposure linked to disease
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
DAVE PARKS
News staff writer
Researchers at the University of Alabama have demonstrated with fruit flies that Parkinson's disease can be triggered by a combination of gene mutation and exposure to a common herbicide, according to an article being published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The study supports a long-standing belief that Parkinson's disease is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In addition, the UA study provides scientific evidence that some genetic mutations may make some people more susceptible to very low levels of toxic exposures, and other genetic mutations may actually protect people from toxic exposures.
"It's an important study," said Dr. Donato A. Di Monte, director of basic research at the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, Calif. "It's a proof of concept."
Janis O'Donnell, a co-author of the study and a professor of biology at UA, said it was surprisingly simple to find varying levels of toxic susceptibility linked to the genetic makeup of fruit flies.
"I really wasn't expecting that it would be so easy to detect sensitivity differences," she said. "That has opened a lot of research doors for us."
The finding could lead to tests for toxins that cause Parkinson's and help pinpoint human genetic variations that are susceptible to the disease. The research also could help scientists design new drugs, she said.
The experiments leading to the discovery were performed at Tuscaloosa over the past few years using fruit flies and the herbicide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson's disease through epidemiological studies. The Centers for Disease Control reports that paraquat is one of the most commonly used herbicides in the world. In the United States, paraquat is available for use only by commercially licensed users because of its toxicity.
O'Donnell said researchers first created a lab model in which fruit flies were exposed to the toxin to the point that they essentially developed Parkinson's disease, a condition marked by the death of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine.
"We developed techniques that gave us specific loss of those neurons," O'Donnell said. "Amazingly, the flies ended up with symptoms that seemed to very accurately replicate those of a Parkinson patient."
The flies developed tremors, difficulty walking and gradually began to lose their balance, she said.
WASHINGTON: Evidence that pesticides can cause Parkinson’s disease is stronger than it has ever been after a meeting of experts who have put together links in animals and people, scientists say.
One study shows that farm workers who used the common weedkiller paraquat had two to three times the normal risk of Parkinson’s, a degenerative brain disease that eventually paralyses patients.
A second study shows that animals exposed to paraquat have a build-up of a protein called alpha-synuclein in their brains. This protein has been linked to Parkinson’s in the past. A third piece of the puzzle shows that this buildup of protein kills the same brain cells affected in Parkinson’s.
“All of these pieces really look like they are coming together now,” William Langston, founder of the non-profit Parkinson’s Institute, said. Langston and colleagues said they were energised by research presented at the Parkinson’s Disease Environmental Research meeting in Monterey, California, earlier this month. Parkinson’s disease, which affects more than 1 million patients in the United States, is marked by the death of brain cells that produce dopamine.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, associated with movement. Drugs can delay symptoms for a while but there is no good treatment and no cure.
Farm workers are at especially high risk but links to pesticides have been difficult to document because years usually pass between a person’s exposure to pesticides and the development of the disease.
Beate Ritz of the University of California at Los Angeles and Caroline Tanner of the Parkinson’s Institute looked at 80,000 people in Iowa and North Carolina and found farm workers exposed to paraquat had twice the expected risk of Parkinson’s over their lifetimes.
Exposure to another pesticide called dieldrin also raised the risk, the study, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, found.
A second study found similar effects in farm workers in central California.
What made the studies especially important was that pesticide exposure could be carefully documented through records of pesticide purchase, Langston said. Details will be published in a scientific journal later.
Donato Di Monte of the Parkinson’s Institute gave paraquat to laboratory animals and found it caused a buildup of alpha-synuclein in the brain that killed the same neurons affected by people with Parkinson’s disease. “This increase in alpha-synuclein in the brain could be the missing link between the exposure to this agent and how this agent causes the disease,” Di Monte said.
Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:48 am
madthumbs
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Sodium Benzoate or Benzoic Acid
Sodium Benzoate or Benzoic Acid used as a preservative in many foods, including drinks, low sugar products, cereals, and meat products may lead to Parkinson's. Benzoic acid is already in our top food additives to avoid: http://www.opposingdigits.com/additives/
The problem - more usually associated with aging and alcohol abuse - can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.
Mon May 28, 2007 9:30 am
madthumbs
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Exposure to pesticides could lead to an increased risk of contracting Parkinson's disease, a study has found.
Researchers discovered that high levels of exposure increased the risk by 39%, while even low levels raised it by 9%.
However, the Aberdeen University researchers stressed that the overall risk of developing the disease remained small.
In the UK, one person in 500 develops the incurable degenerative brain disease, or a similar illness.
Symptoms often include unsteadiness and tremor in the hands or arms, often alongside difficulties with speech or movement.
Other studies have pointed strongly towards exposure to pesticides being involved in some cases, with agricultural workers showing higher rates of the illness.
Wed May 30, 2007 9:10 am
madthumbs
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Family Study Associates Pesticide Use With Parkinson's Risk
Source: BioMed Central, news release, March 27, 2008
Quote:
FRIDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- Parkinson's disease has been linked to exposure to pesticides in a new study comparing people with the neurological disorder and their unaffected relatives.
The study, published online in the open-access journalBMC Neurology, found the strongest ties to the use of herbicides and insecticides, such as organochlorides and organophosphates. Drinking well water or living or working on a farm, two common experiences for pesticide exposures, did not appear to be associated with Parkinson's.
Many Parkinson's disease cases are thought to be due to an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. By studying related individuals who share environmental and genetic backgrounds, researchers said they could identify specific differences in exposures between individuals with and without the disease.
"Previous studies have shown that individuals with Parkinson's disease are over twice as likely to report being exposed to pesticides as unaffected individuals, but few studies have looked at this association in people from the same family or have assessed associations between specific classes of pesticides and Parkinson's disease," study author Dana Hancock said in a prepared statement.
Researchers from both Duke University Medical Center and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine interviewed 319 Parkinson's patients and more than 200 of their relatives to get details about whether they ever were exposed to pesticides, lived or worked on a farm, or drank water from wells.
Parkinson's disease, which affects about 1 million people in the United States, is characterized by symptoms such as tremors and muscle rigidity. Several gene variations have been tagged as contributing to the disease, but these rare defects account for a small proportion of those affected by disorder.
While several other studies have supported pesticides as a risk factor for Parkinson's, "biological evidence is presently insufficient to conclude that pesticide exposure causes PD," Hancock said.
"Further investigation of these specific pesticides and others may lead to identification of pertinent biological pathways influencing PD development," he said.
