Washington DC [US] : Researchers discovered that those who live in places with median levels of air pollution are 56 per cent more likely to get Parkinson’s disease than those who live in areas with the lowest levels of air pollution.
The study, which will be published in Neurology – the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology – sought to discover national and geographic patterns of Parkinson’s disease, as well as to test for nationally and region-specific connections with fine particulate matter.
“Previous studies have shown fine particulate matter to cause inflammation in the brain, a known mechanism by which Parkinson’s disease could develop,” said Brittany Krzyzanowski, PhD, a researcher at Barrow Neurological Institute, who led the study.
“Using state-of-the-art geospatial analytical techniques, we were, for the first time, able to confirm a strong nationwide association between incident Parkinson’s disease and fine particulate matter in the US.”
The study also found that the relationship between air pollution and Parkinson’s disease is not the same in every part of the country, and varies in strength by region. The Mississippi-Ohio River Valley was identified as a Parkinson’s disease hotspot, along with central North Dakota, parts of Texas, Kansas, eastern Michigan, and the tip of Florida.
People living in the western half of the US are at a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease compared with the rest of the nation.
