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Tag: Parkinsons

  • The Link Between Milk and Parkinson’s Disease

    The Link Between Milk and Parkinson’s Disease

    Is the brain damage associated with milk consumption due to the banned pesticide heptachlor or the milk sugar galactose?

    Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that affects millions of people. What causes it? Well, if you look at lifestyle factors associated with Parkinson’s disease, dairy consumption is the strongest dietary factor associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease. In fact, dairy products are the only food group consistently linked with a high risk of developing Parkinson’s. Five large prospective studies have confirmed the link. This includes the two Harvard cohorts, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which followed more than 100,000 people combined for decades in “the largest analysis of dairy and PD [Parkinson’s disease] to date,” analyzing more than 1,000 newly diagnosed cases. All the studies found a link between dairy and Parkinson’s, with most finding a significant link—about a 50% increase in risk overall in those drinking the most milk compared to those drinking the least, at a p-value below 0.00001, meaning there’s less than a 1 in 100,000 chance you’d randomly get a finding that extreme. You can see this in the chart below and at 1:13 in my video, The Role Milk May Play in Triggering Parkinson’s Disease.

    Okay, but why is there a link at all? “Despite clear-cut associations between milk intake and” incidence of Parkinson’s, “there is no rational explanation,” concluded one review. A year later, though, we got a clue: “Midlife milk consumption and substantia nigra neuron density at death.” What does that mean? Parkinson’s is caused primarily by the loss of a certain type of nerve cells in a critical part of the brain, with symptoms first appearing once most of these neurons have died. So one study looked at how much milk people drank when they were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and then examined their brains at autopsy and counted how many of those critical neurons they had left. In every single quadrant, neuron density was highest “in those who consumed no milk and lowest in those who consumed the most milk.” Even after removing the Parkinson’s cases, those drinking two cups (473 mL) of milk a day had up to 40% fewer nerve cells in most quadrants of that critical brain region. What’s in milk that could be wiping out brain cells? Among the people who drank the most milk, residues of the pesticide “heptachlor epoxide were found in 9 out of 10 brains.” So, maybe the finding of pesticide residues more commonly in the brains of those who drank the most milk could explain how milk could be cause-and-effect related to Parkinson’s disease risk.

    Now, that’s not the only potential explanation. In one of my videos, I talked about how meat contains that clumpy neurotoxic protein alpha-synuclein. Well, dairy products may contain trace amounts as well, but we don’t have confirmation of that. Could the milk sugar “galactose be the missing link?” Galactose is what the lactose in milk breaks down into once it’s in the body. It’s also what’s used to induce aging—to experimentally cause aging—in the brain. When you drink it, the galactose is picked up by your brain within a few hours, and for doses above 100 mg/kg, it appears that galactose can cause pathological alterations in brain cells, similar to those observed in Parkinson’s disease. This amount “can be reached and surpassed” by simply drinking two glasses (473 mL) of milk (the main dietary source of galactose) each day. And of all your brain cells, those dopaminergic neurons—the ones that you need to retain to prevent Parkinson’s—may be more vulnerable to galactose-induced damage because they are more vulnerable to oxidative stress.

    Galactose may also explain the findings linking milk drinking with higher death rates. You may be thinking, “Well, duh—the saturated butterfat is just cutting people’s lives short,” but higher mortality with high milk consumption has been observed regardless of the milk fat content. Skim milk might be fat-free, but it’s not lactose-free.

    Can’t you just drink lactose-free milk, like Lactaid? That has the lactase enzyme added to make lactose-free milk. But it just breaks down lactose into galactose in the carton rather than in your gut, so you’re still ingesting the same amount of galactose. Perhaps it’s no wonder that more milk intake at midlife may be linked to a greater rate of cognitive decline. Remember, researchers use galactose to create brain aging in the laboratory. D-galactose, a metabolic derivative of lactose, has been extensively used in animal models “to mimic cognitive aging” through oxidative stress. Compared to those who said they “almost never” drink milk, those drinking more than one glass (237 mL) a day appear more likely to suffer a decline in global cognitive function.

    Doctor’s Note

    Here’s the meat video I mentioned: The Role Meat May Play in Triggering Parkinson’s Disease.

    You may remember that I’ve explored this before in Could Lactose Explain the Milk and Parkinson’s Disease Link?. Uric acid may also be a contender—see Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot.

    For more on Parkinson’s disease, check out related posts below.



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  • Might Meat Trigger Parkinson’s Disease? 

    Might Meat Trigger Parkinson’s Disease? 

    What does the gut have to do with developing Parkinson’s disease?

    Parkinson’s disease is an ever-worsening neurodegenerative disorder that results in death and affects about 1 in 50 people as they get older. A small minority of cases are genetic, running in families, but 85% to 90% of cases are sporadic, meaning they seem to pop up out of nowhere. Parkinson’s is caused by the death of a certain kind of nerve cell in the brain. Once about 70% of them are gone, the symptoms start. What kills off those cells? It still isn’t completely clear, but the abnormal clumping of a protein called alpha-synuclein or α-synuclein is thought to be involved. Why? Researchers injected blended Parkinson’s brains into the heads of rats and monkeys, and Parkinson’s pathology and symptoms were induced. It can even happen when injecting just the pure, clumped α-synuclein strands themselves. How, though, do these clumps naturally end up in the brain?

    As I discuss in my video The Role Meat May Play in Triggering Parkinson’s Disease, it all seems to start in the gut. The part of the brain where the pathology often first appears is directly connected to the gut, and we have direct evidence of the spread of Parkinson’s pathology from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to the brain: α-synuclein from brains of Parkinson’s patients is taken up in the gut wall and creeps up the vagal nerves from the gut into the brain—at least that was the case in rats. If only we could go back and look at people’s colons before they got Parkinson’s. Indeed, we can. Old colon biopsies from people who would later develop Parkinson’s were dredged up, and, years before symptoms arose, you could see the α-synuclein in their gut.

    Research supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation has found that you can reliably distinguish the colons of patients from controls by the presence of this Parkinson’s protein lodged in the gut wall. But how did it get there in the first place? Are “vertebrate food products…a potential source of prion-like α-synuclein”? Indeed, nearly all the animals with backbones that we consume—cows, chickens, pigs, and fish—express the protein α-synuclein. So, when we eat common meat products, when we eat skeletal muscle, we’re eating nerves, blood cells, and the muscle cells themselves. Every pound of meat contains, on average, half a teaspoon of blood, and that alone could be an α-synuclein source to potentially trigger a clumping cascade of our own α-synuclein in the gut. Though “it may seem intuitive that dietary α-synuclein could seed aggregation in the gut,” this kind of buildup, what evidence do we have that it’s actually happening?

    We have some pretty interesting data. There’s a surgical procedure called a vagotomy, in which the big nerve that goes from our gut to our brain—the vagus nerve—is cut as an old-timey treatment for stomach ulcers. Would cutting communication between the gut and the brain reduce Parkinson’s risk? Apparently so, suggesting that the gut to brain’s vagal nerve may be critically involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease.

    Of course, “many people regularly consume meat and dairy products, but only a small fraction of the general population will develop PD,” Parkinson’s disease. So, there must be other factors at play that “may provide an opportunity for unwanted dietary α-synuclein to enter the host, and initiate disease.” For example, our gut becomes leakier as we age, so might that play a role? What else makes our gut leaky? “Dietary fiber deprivation has also been shown to degrade the intestinal barrier and enhance pathogen entry.” So, this raises “possibilities for food-based therapies.”

    Parkinson’s patients have significantly less Prevotella in their gut, a friendly fiber-eating flora that bolsters our intestinal barrier function. So, low levels of Prevotella are linked to a leaky gut, which has been linked to intestinal α-synuclein deposition, but fiber-rich foods may bring Prevotella levels back up. “Therefore, it is possible that by adopting a plant-based diet, in addition to the beneficial effects of phytonutrients, increasing overall fiber intake may modify gut microbiota and gut permeability [leakiness] in beneficial ways for people with PD.”

    So, does a vegan diet—one with lots of fiber and no meat—reduce risk for Parkinson’s? Parkinson’s “appears to be rare in quasi-vegan cultures,” with rates that are about five times lower in rural sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. All this time, we were thinking the benefits seen for Parkinson’s from plant-based diets were due to the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nature of the animal-free diets, but maybe it’s also due to the increased intestinal exposure to fiber and decreased intestinal exposure to ingested nerves, muscles, and blood.

    Wasn’t that fascinating? For more on Parkinson’s, see the related posts below.



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  • Living Near This Popular Sports Facility May Triple Your Risk Of Parkinson’s Disease

    Living Near This Popular Sports Facility May Triple Your Risk Of Parkinson’s Disease

    Living next to a golf course may seem like a dream, with lush greens, peaceful surroundings, and an ambience of a luxury lifestyle. However, new research suggests that this idyllic setting could come with a hidden cost. Scientists have found that people living near golf courses may face an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

    Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement and coordination. Common symptoms include tremors, stiffness, slowed movement, and balance problems. While the exact cause is unknown, both genetic and environmental factors are believed to play a role.

    The latest study published in the journal JAMA Network Open reveals that people living within two miles of a golf course face nearly three times the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The risk is highest for residents in water service areas where golf courses are located in regions prone to groundwater contamination.

    This heightened risk is linked to the heavy use of pesticides on golf courses, which are applied in the U.S. at rates up to 15 times higher than in many European countries. These chemicals can seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, raising serious concerns about the safety of local drinking water.

    For the study, researchers analyzed medical records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, covering 27 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin between 1991 and 2015. They examined the relationship between living near golf courses and the risk of Parkinson’s disease, focusing on areas surrounding 139 golf courses.

    “We observed that the risk of developing PD was greatest for those living within 1 to 3 miles of a golf course and that the risk of PD generally decreased with increasing distance from a golf course. We also found that individuals getting their drinking water from water service areas with a golf course had nearly double the odds of PD compared with individuals getting drinking water from water service areas without a golf course,” the researchers wrote.

    The researchers found that while the risk of Parkinson’s disease remained steady for those living within three miles of a golf course, it decreased by 13% for every mile beyond that. Pesticides including organophosphates, chlorpyrifos, methylchlorophenoxypropionic acid (MCPP), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), maneb, and organochlorines, which are known to be linked to Parkinson’s disease, are commonly used to treat golf courses.

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