Eating Foods With Nicotine Could Help Prevent Parkinson's Disease

Date: May-09-2013Certain species of a flowering plant family called "Solanaceae" have chemical properties that can help prevent the development of Parkinson's disease. Some of the species are edible sources of nicotine, a chemical which is thought to have a neuroprotective effect upon dopaminergic neurons, providing a protective effect against the disease.

The finding, which was published in a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, Annals of Neurology, revealed that consuming certain foods that contain nicotine, such as plants belonging to the Solanaceae family, as well as peppers and tomatoes, could help lower Parkinson's risk.
Could nicotine help prevent the development of the disease?
Studies have found an association between tobacco (which is a species of Solanaceae) and a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, although experts aren't yet 100% certain if it is the nicotine and perhaps another component in tobacco that prevents the development of the disease, or just the fact that Parkinson's patients were never the "smoking types".

The effects of nicotine on cognitive impairment have been explored before. In fact, a previous study published in Neurology found that wearing a nicotine patch may greatly help improve memory loss among older adults with mild cognitive impairment."Nicotine stimulates receptors in the brain that are important for thinking and memory and may have neuroprotective effects".

This study, which was led by Dr. Susan Searles Nielsen and her colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle, included 490 patients who were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease as well as 644 "healthy" individuals (the control group).

The researchers gave the participants questionnaires asking about their diet as well as tobacco use.

They found that people who ate high levels of edible Solanaceae were at a lower risk of Parkinson's disease compared to those who didn't eat as much. Of all the different plants or foods with nicotine, pepper consumption appeared to provide the best protection.

Solanaceae's Parkinson's prevention benefits are most noticeable in people who never used tobacco producs.

Dr. Searles Nielsen, concluded:

"Our study is the first to investigate dietary nicotine and risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Similar to the many studies that indicate tobacco use might reduce risk of Parkinson's, our findings also suggest a protective effect from nicotine, or perhaps a similar but less toxic chemical in peppers and tobacco."

Further studies are needed to confirm their findings, the authors pointed out.
Parkinson's - A common disease without a cure
As the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease, with 60,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the U.S., Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder which occurs as a result of degeneration of the central nervous system. It is caused by the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine.

Men have a 50% higher risk of developing the disease compared to women - in the majority of cases symptoms start to appear after the age of 50.

Symptoms develop gradually, and may start off with ever-so-slight tremors in one hand.

A list of the symptoms of the disease, include:

Facial, hand, arm, and leg tremors
Balance difficulties
Slower movement
Stiff limbs

Sadly there is no cure for Parkinson's, which currently affects around ten million people around the world. To date, treatment and medication, such as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), are only capable of alleviating some of its very debilitating symptoms.

DBS works by electrically stimulating the central nervous system, and it is the norm for treating Parkinson's, though it can be expensive and cause undesirable side effects.

However, recently researchers in Switzerland have developed miniature, ultra-flexible electrodes which could be the answer to more successful treatment for Parkinson's and a host of other health issues.

There is still much room for improvement in treating the disease.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist

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