Berries & Parkinsons
BERRY CONSUMPTION MAY REDUCE PARKINSON’S RISK
The first-ever study on the link between flavonoids and Parkinson’s disease has found a lower risk of developing the disease among men and women who regularly eat berries.
The study also found that – among men – the risk of Parkinson’s is reduced even further by the regular consumption of apples, oranges and other dietary sources of flavonoids. (Flavonoids are found in plants and fruits; and in cocoa, tea and red wine. Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system.)
The research drew information from over 129,000 people by questionnaire and found that males who were in the top 20 percent of flavonoid consumers had a 40 percent lower risk of the disease, compared to those in the bottom 20 percent; there was no lower risk for women with higher overall flavonoid intake. However, when specific flavonoids were analyzed, it became clear that men and women alike enjoyed a lower risk of Parkinson’s with the type of flavonoids called anthocyanins, which are mainly obtained from berries. This study was released February 14, 2011 but details will not be available until the 63rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in April.
Risk of Parkinson’s with Low Vitamin D
A study of 3,000 people found that those with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D appeared to be three times as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease later in life – up to 30 years later – compared to those with highest levels.
Parkinson’s affects several brain areas and causes tremors and slow movements. Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because the skin can produce substantial amounts when in the presence of sunlight. It is also found in oily fish, milk, cereals and supplement pills.
For years, scientists have known that vitamin D assists calcium uptake and bone formation but recent evidence suggests it plays a role in regulating the immune system and developing the nervous system.
A level of 30 nanograms per milliliter of blood appears optimal for bone health. But the researchers suggested further research to determine the optimal blood level of vitamin D for brain and nerve health, as well as to determine the level of toxicity, neither of which is known. This study, which has been published in the July 2010 issue of the journal, Archives of Neurology, can be read online with journal subscription: http://bit.ly/bqfjsl
Can Past Surgery Cause CJD, Alzheimers or Parkinsons?
A jarring statistical study concludes that with few exceptions, those who become afflicted with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) do so 20 years after some type of surgery.
Caused by an infectious protein called a prion, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD is the brain-wasting and always fatal disease that slowly causes holes in the brain, making it sponge-like. It is the human variant of mad cow disease, and scrapie in sheep, and is also called a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or TSE.
Heredity can be a cause but most cases are called sporadic, meaning their cause is unknown.
The reliability of the data prompted researchers to conclude there is a cause-and-effect relationship between CJD and surgery. Without ruling out blood transfusions as the route, the team suggested that prions may enter the body through the central or peripheral nervous system, conceivably from sanitized but reused equipment.
Unlike germs, prions are not alive and have no DNA, making them impossible to destroy by traditional methods such as heat or radiation.
But the nervous system route has greater implications: if CJD is externally caused by surgery, other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s could also be transmitted through surgery and lie dormant for decades before striking.
This study was released in advance of publishing in the print version of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry but the full article is available online now at: http://bit.ly/bxamv6.
Antidepressants Pose Cataract Risk
The first major study on this topic has shown an increased risk among seniors of developing cataracts as a result of taking the most common type of antidepressant – SSRIs.
SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, alleviate depression by raising low levels of serotonin in the brain. But the eye’s lens also contains serotonin receptors and excess serotonin can make the lens opaque and lead to cataract formation, reports the Canadian research, which included 19,000 patients who were on at least one of these drugs and 190,000 controls, meaning people who were not.
The risk was related only to current use, meaning risk disappeared after discontinuation of the antidepressants.
There is an additional higher risk of corneal damage from amantadine, a Parkinson’s disease drug. Parkinson’s patients on long-term amantadine therapy were found to have cornea changes that could lead to vision damage.
The study appears in the June, 2010 issue of Opthalmology (see abstract below).
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ARTICLE ABSTRACT
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and the Risk of Cataracts A Nested Case-Control Study.
Etminan M, Mikelberg FS, Brophy JM.
Ophthalmology. 2010 Mar 6. [PMID: 20207418]
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
OBJECTIVE: Older-generation antidepressants have been associated with increasing the risk of cataracts. Although animal studies have alluded to a potential link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the development of cataracts, no large population based-study has addressed this potential association. This study sought to quantify the risk of cataracts with SSRIs by conducting a pharmacoepidemiologic study using the linked administrative databases in the province of Quebec, Canada.
DESIGN: Nested case-control study.
PARTICIPANTS: A cohort of subjects who had received a coronary revascularization procedure from 1995 through 2004 in the province of Quebec, Canada. METHODS: Using an administrative data set, a case-control study was conducted within a cohort of Quebec residents who had received a coronary revascularization procedure from 1995 through 2004. Cases were defined as those with the first diagnosis of a cataract diagnosed by an ophthalmologist. For each case, 10 controls were selected and matched to the cases by index date, age, and cohort entry. Crude and adjusted rate ratios (RRs) and corresponding confidence intervals (CIs) were computed for current use of SSRIs. Rate ratios were adjusted for gender, corticosteroid use, statins, high blood pressure, antihypertensives, and antidiabetics.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: First International Classification for Disease (Ninth Revision) code for a cataract diagnosed by an ophthalmologist. RESULTS: Eighteen thousand seven hundred eighty-four cases and 187 840 controls met our study inclusion criteria. The adjusted RR for cataracts among current users of SSRIs was 1.15 (95% CI, 1.08-1.23). The risk of cataracts was highest with fluvoxamine (RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.07-1.80), followed by venlafaxine (RR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.14-1.55) and paroxetine for cataract surgery (RR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.05-1.45). The average time to diagnosis of cataracts while on SSRI therapy was 656 days. CONCLUSIONS: A possible association was found between current exposure to SSRIs, especially fluvoxamine and venlafaxine, and a future diagnosis of cataracts. The possibility that this observation may be the result of the effect of smoking, which could not be controlled for in the study, cannot be excluded. Future studies are needed to confirm this association in other populations. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE(S): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article. Copyright © 2010 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PMID: 20207418