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    How lifestyle habits could prevent Parkinson’s disease

    Umito Posted on

    The aging of our population in recent decades has been accompanied by a marked increase in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The scale of this increase, however, is so staggering that we have to wonder what else could be happening. While the aging of the population can certainly explain this increase, are there other factors at play in what has truly become an epidemic?

    According to a 2018 article by E. Ray Dorsey and colleagues, “Neurological disorders are now the leading source of disability worldwide, and the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world is Parkinson’s disease. From 1990 to 2015, the number of people with Parkinson’s disease doubled to more than 6 million. » They also say that this number is expected to double again to more than 12 million by 2040.

    Although there is no known way to reverse PD, we now know that it is preventable in many cases. Due to the increasing prevalence of the disease, there is now a lot of interest in why this happens. That being said, a landmark study published last April gives us considerable insight into what might be the underlying cause of the disease and, in turn, gives us good insight into ways to prevent it. Another Harvard study, also published this year, comes to a similar conclusion.

    Let’s first look at the Harvard study. Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition it states: “Dietary patterns with high consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fish and poultry, as well as low consumption of saturated fats and moderate alcohol consumption can protect against PD. Advantages of a plant-based diet the inclusion of fish in PD merits further investigation. That said, this is the other study that I find even more exciting and which gives us good reasons to be optimistic, both in terms of prevention and in terms of slowing the progression of the disease and potentially reducing the severity of the symptoms.

    This second study, linked to microbiome health and its effect on Parkinson’s disease, published in the medical journal Nature. First, a word about our microbiome. As Harvard Health describes it, imagine a bustling city on a weekday morning, the sidewalks flooded with people rushing to get to work or appointments. They all walk in different directions and no one looks exactly like the other.

    Fruits and vegetables (credit: INGIMAGE)

    Microbiomes in our body

    Now imagine this on a microscopic level and you will have an idea of ​​what the microbiome looks like inside our body, made up of billions of microorganisms belonging to thousands of different species. These are made up of bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. In a healthy person, these “microbes” coexist peacefully, with the majority found in the small and large intestines but also throughout the body. The microbiome is even called a support organ because it plays many key roles in the proper daily functioning of the human body. It has an influence on virtually all areas of health.

    Research over the past two decades has shown us just how pronounced this influence is. Without dwelling on the exact mechanisms of how the microbiome works, it is important to know that the intestinal microbiome has a great influence on all the systems of our body and in particular on our brain. (This is the result of something called the gut-brain axis.) These days, barely a week goes by without research revealing the influence of our gut microbiome on our brain health . For example, after decades of thinking that most of our neuronal connectors and brain-specific hormones were made in the brain, we now know that most of them originate in the gut and travel up to the brain through the vagus nerve and other means.

    Two things to keep in mind in an effort to prevent and reverse disease: 1) You can change the composition of your microbiome through your lifestyle habits and 2) the influence of your gut health on the brain is indeed pronounced.

    Looking at the study published in Nature, we see that in Parkinson’s patients, there is a lot of dysbiosis in the gut. Simply put, there are too many types of inflammatory microbes and not enough anti-inflammatory microbes. This imbalance is often the catalyst for disease. With this connection firmly established and knowing that we can control our gut health through good lifestyle habits, we can reduce the risk of disease in general and certainly PD.

    ALL of this information is supported by another study, published in Movement disorders. This medical review concludes that greater adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is associated with significantly lower risks of Parkinson’s disease. The study also investigated the impact of unhealthy plant-based eating habits, revealing that diets containing more refined grains and sugary drinks increased the risk of disease.

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    Interviewed by the Forks over Knives organization, study author Aedin Cassidy, PhD, said: “We showed, for the first time, that a diet rich in healthy plant-based foods reduced the risk to develop Parkinson’s disease by 22%. » Simple diet changes, including increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and tea, can reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. To date, there is no cure for PD, so prevention and risk reduction strategies are particularly important.

    But there is much more than diet. Exercise appears to be a key element in both preventing and significantly slowing the progression of the disease. The Parkinson’s Outcomes Project shows that people with Parkinson’s disease who start exercising earlier in their disease for at least 2.5 hours per week experience a slower decline in quality of life than those who start later – and a larger number might be better. Establishing exercise habits early is essential to overall disease management. Exercise is also microbiome-friendly, so it appears that by combining a predominantly plant-based diet and exercise, the chances of not developing PD should improve significantly.

    We now know for sure that Parkinson’s disease is to some extent preventable and that its symptoms can be well managed through a combination of vigorous exercise and a diet rich in various plants and low in saturated fats. This combination has worked well to prevent and reverse many diseases; Hopefully, these early discoveries about Parkinson’s disease will open up another area of ​​health where you can “add hours to your days, days to your years, and years to your life.”

    The writer is a member of the International Council of the True Health Initiative and the Board of Directors of Kosher Plant Based. He is a certified plant-based nutritionist and personal trainer experienced in wellness coaching: www.alanfitness.com



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