PEPPERS REDUCE THE RISK OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

21st May 2013 - New research

Annals of Neurology [2013] May 9 [Epub ahead of print] (Nielsen SS, Franklin GM, Longstreth WT, Swanson PD, Checkoway H.) 

Nicotine has long been known to reduce the risk of Parkinson's Disease. So researchers assessed whether the risk of Parkinson's Disease is associated with the consumption of nicotine-containing vegetables edibles from the same botanical family as tobacco, Solanaceae, which includes peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes.

When people with Parkinson's Disease were compared with those people that did not have it, Parkinson's Disease was found to be less likely in those people that ate more peppers, tomatoes, tomato juice, and potatoes during adulthood. An association was also found for just peppers. The likelihood of developing Parkinson's Disease was an average of 81% as likely, and in some people down to 65% as likely. The association was intensified when the nicotine concentration of the vegetables was higher. So it was nicotine that caused the effect. The potential effect largely occurred in people who had never used tobacco or who had smoked cigarettes for less than 10 years.

Consumption of other vegetables was unrelated to the likelihood of developing Parkinson's Disease. For a