CAFFEINE & PARKINSON'S DISEASE.Caffeine may lower the risk of Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonism, degenerative brain disorder first described by the English surgeon James Parkinson in 1817. When there is no known cause, the disease usually appears after age 40 and is referred to as Parkinson's disease. , say researchers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Affairs is a term of the business that deals with the relation between a government and its veteran communities, usually administered by the designated government agency. in Honolulu. Robert Abbott and colleagues studied more than 8,000 Hawaiian men of Japanese ancestry who were asked about their diets when they entered the Honolulu Heart Program in the mid-1960s and again in the early 1970s. Over the next 30 years, 102 of the men were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Those who drank no coffee had a two to three times greater risk of Parkinson's than coffee drinkers. Caffeine from other foods was also linked to a lower risk of the disease, but coffee was the largest source of caffeine among the men. "People who have a predisposition to Parkinson's or early stages of the disease may have a dislike for coffee," says Abbott. "Or, caffeine may delay the degeneration of neurons in the brain." The loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter neurotransmitter, chemical that transmits information across the junction (synapse) that separates one nerve cell (neuron) from another nerve cell or a muscle. Neurotransmitters are stored in the nerve cell's bulbous end (axon). dopamine dopamine (dōp`əmēn), one of the intermediate substances in the biosynthesis of epinephrine and norepinephrine. See catecholamine. dopamine One of the catecholamines, widely distributed in the central nervous system. causes the tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's. |
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