Republished with permission from Dr. Patrick B. Massey, Source: Daily Herald, March 1, 2004

Over the next decade, we face a number of serious medical problems. The US population is aging rapidly and the incidence of specific neurologic diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease will increase dramatically. We know diet changes can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. What dietary modifications reduce the risk for Parkinson’s disease?

Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are tremors, rigidity of muscles, slow speech and a distinct change in walking. It is related to the death of brain cells that make the neurotransmitter, dopamine.

The chance of developing Parkinson’s disease increases with age. Although only 1/100 people, between 65-74, will develop Parkinson’s disease, almost half of people over 85 will have symptoms. Present annual costs for medical care, disability, and work absences are estimated at about $25 billion dollars/year. With 77 million Americans reaching retirement age in the next decade, $25 billion dollars will just be a drop in the bucket.

The problem is that the focus of traditional medicine and insurance reimbursement is to treat disease after it happens. Medical therapies for Parkinson’s disease improve symptoms, but do not reduce progression substantially…and they are very expensive. It is highly unlikely that an inexpensive, new miracle drug or treatment, reversing this disease will be found.

The key is to discover if there are simple lifestyle changes that can prevent Parkinson’s disease. However, help may be as close as your coffee/tea cup.

For several years, we have known that people who drank coffee appeared to have a lower incidence of Parkinson’s disease. Recent medical studies published in Neurology and the Journal of Neurological Science has established a strong link between coffee/green tea consumption and the prevention of Parkinson’s disease. One study demonstrated that daily consumption of 3 cups of either coffee and/or green tea reduceed Parkinson’s disease by at least 28%. Other studies have shown that regular coffee consumption can reduce Parkinson’s disease by 30-40%.

Coffee and green tea contains caffeine. Caffeine may protect dopamine producing nerves from damage by binding to specific receptors on the cell membrane. This was discovered by mice. Mice, pretreated with caffeine before exposure to a neurotoxin (causing Parkinson’s disease), lost significantly fewer nerve cells than mice without caffeine pretreatment.

Treatment goals for Parkinson's disease are prevention of both development and progression of the disease. Preventing 28-40% of new cases of Parkinson’s disease would save billions of dollars per year and quality of life benefits would be immeasurable.

A few new drugs for Parkinson’s disease act like caffeine. They may not only improve symptoms but slow the relentless progression of the disease. However, they will not reach the market for years and will be very expensive. Will these drugs be better than coffee or green tea? Chances are we won’t know. Drugs are rarely compared with other drugs and almost never with food and dietary supplements, to determine which gives the best result with the fewest side effects.

Until then, I will continue to have an occasional cup of coffee and 2-3 cups of green tea/day.

About the Author: Patrick B. Massey MD, PhD, is Medical Director of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Alexian Brothers Hospital Network Dr. Massey is also President of the ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy Program, Elk Grove Village IL 60007 (847) 923-0046 www.alt-med.org