- Parkinson’s disease is a common progressive neurological disorder, marked by tremors, bradykinesia, depression, and limitations in motor and cognitive function.
- Citing scarce evidence tying eating patterns to Parkinson’s disease, European researchers set out to assess the potential effect of healthy and unhealthy plant-based foods on the risk for this disease.
- The team scrutinized the eating patterns of more than 100,000 people, finding a remarkable correlation between eating healthy plant-based foods and reduced Parkinson’s disease risk.
- Experts were impressed ‘to see that simple dietary modifications could play a role in reducing the incidence of one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases worldwide.’
Parkinson’s disease is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in disability and deaths, affecting 1% of adults over 60 in industrialized countries. As global populations increase and age, health experts expect prevalence to spread.
Since Parkinson’s disease currently has no cure, prevention strategies are urgently needed. Some of the known primary risk factors, including age and genetics, are non-modifiable, while others, such as chemical exposure, are difficult to modify.
Thus, experts are exploring the possibility of dietary and lifestyle choices as manipulable factors in staving off or treating Parkinson’s disease and related neurological diseases.
A team of European researchers analyzed the diets of over 100,000 individuals, searching for a link between plant-based eating patterns and Parkinson’s disease onset.
Their findings concluded that eating healthy plant-based foods could significantly reduce Parkinson’s disease risk for some people.
The results were published in
Numerous studies have investigated the potential neuroprotective features of nutrients, foods, and dietary patterns.
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