Parkinson's patients drink less coffee and smoke less than other family members without the disease, researchers at Duke University Medical Center reported in the Daily Health News. Their findings appear in April in Archives of Neurology.
Previous studies have shown that drinking coffee, smoking and taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen help prevent Parkinson's disease, but few family studies have explored this association.
The new study included 356 Parkinson's patients (average age 66) and 317 family members (average age 64). The results showed that Parkinson's patients had 44% fewer smoking histories and 70% fewer current smokers than unaffected family members; increased coffee consumption and intensity were negatively associated with Parkinson's disease; NSAID use was not associated with Parkinson's disease.
Researchers say it's not clear why smoking and coffee consumption help reduce Parkinson's risk. Because Parkinson's disease is complex, these environmental factors do not act in isolation, and the importance of gene-environment interactions in Parkinson's disease susceptibility should be emphasized. Smoking and caffeine may modulate familial genetic effects of Parkinson's disease and should be included as effect modifiers in candidate gene studies for Parkinson's disease.
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