Neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide and Parkinson’s disease is the fastest growing of them all. An ageing population is certainly one factor, but there seems no doubt that industrialisation, with the use of pesticides and increased pollution, is also playing a role in what has been described as a Parkinson’s pandemic. In France, for instance, it is recognised that those living in wine-growing regions are at a greater risk of this once rare condition due to the high volumes of pesticides used in vineyards.
There is a limit to how much we can reduce exposure to these environmental factors. However, several other lifestyle measures may help delay the onset of this degenerative condition, says researcher Victor Dieriks, of the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research. One of the easiest is to drink coffee.
“I used to dislike coffee,” he says. “But reading the research, the same message kept coming through – that consuming coffee protects people against Parkinson’s. So, a few years ago, I started drinking it.”
With Parkinson’s, nerve cells in the brain become impaired and die, which results in a drop in the neurotransmitter dopamine. This eventually causes the movement problems associated with the condition – slowness, tremors, stiffness and loss of balance. Coffee stimulates dopamine production and, by blocking the adenosine receptors in the brain, slows how it is broken down.
“You shouldn’t drink coffee as soon as you wake up, when cortisol levels are high,” says Dieriks. “90 minutes to 2 hours after you wake up is the ideal time to have a cup. And you don’t want to drink more than 2-3 cups a day, as that can have other bad effects.”
Although researchers have mostly attributed the protective effect to the caffeine, coffee contains more than 1000 chemical compounds and it is possible some of these may be contributing. A 2018 US study suggested caffeine might be working in synergy with a fatty acid called Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide (EHT).
There is also compelling science to show that exercise is neuroprotective. When we are active, our muscles secrete a hormone called irisin that has metabolic benefits. Irisin crosses the blood-brain barrier and has been found to reduce levels of alpha synuclein, a sticky protein that clumps in the brains of people with Parkinson’s.
“It doesn’t seem to matter what sort of exercise you do so long as you’re increasing your heart rate and getting your muscles to move. Around 20 minutes of exercise a day seems to be enough.”
Good sleep is also beneficial – while we’re slumbering, waves of cerebrospinal fluid wash through the brain, essentially giving it a deep clean.
As we’ve gained more understanding of Parkinson’s disease, it has become clear there are non-motor symptoms to look out for. These include changes in mood, slower thinking, slowed bowel movements, loss of smell and sleep disorders. These may occur years before diagnosis and be attributed to other things.
What’s needed is an accessible test for Parkinson’s so sufferers can make lifestyle changes early and slow the progression of the disease. One test looks for abnormal alpha synuclein in spinal fluid; however, this requires a lumbar puncture.
Dieriks is involved with work to produce a test using a urine or blood sample. His longer-term goal is to develop therapies to delay or stop the onset of Parkinson’s.
“When you look at people with Parkinson’s disease, none of them are the same. So, even though we say that the disease is caused by these clumps of protein, that doesn’t explain the variability.
“We now know there are different forms of alpha synuclein. My work is looking at how we can detect these different forms and how the brain behaves differently when we have one form versus the other.”
Most likely, there won’t be one solution for Parkinson’s but different treatments for the disease’s subdivisions. In the meantime, simple lifestyle changes are worth making.
“We might not be able to change our exposures in the past, but we can change a lot about how we live now,” says Dieriks. “That will have an enormous impact on how our brain functions and how it copes with environmental factors.”
