Exposure to insecticides in the home may double a person's risk of developing Parkinson's disease, say researchers. There was also an association with herbicides, according to a report published by bbc.online Friday.
However, exposure to insecticides in the garden, and fungicides, were not found to be risk factors.
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. The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology.
Parkinson's patients were more than twice as likely to have been exposed to the chemicals than the healthy participants.
"It is the first study to show a significant association between home pesticide use and the risk of developing Parkinson's disease," said Nelson.
However, on a different note, Professor Adrian Williams, chairman of the Parkinson Disease Society's medical advisory panel, stated that although this research does show a link between pesticide exposure and development of Parkinson's disease, the link remains unproven and suspected.
The pesticides work on damaging nerve cells in a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which 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. However the reason why these neurons are being killed is yet unknown - Albawaba.com
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