Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer disease: environmental risk factors

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this review is to update and summarise available evidence on environmental risk factors that have been associated with risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) or Alzheimer disease (AD) and to discuss their potential mechanisms.Development: Evidence consistently suggests that a higher risk of PD is associated with pesticides and that a higher risk of AD is associated with pesticides, hypertension and high cholesterol levels in middle age, hyperhomocysteinaemia, smoking, traumatic brain injury and depression. There is weak evidence suggesting that higher risk of PD is associated with high milk consumption in men, high iron intake, chronic anaemia and traumatic brain injury. Weak evidence also suggests that a higher risk of AD is associated with high aluminium intake through drinking water, excessive exposure to electromagnetic fields from electrical grids, DM and hyperinsulinaemia, obesity in middle age, excessive alcohol consumption and chronic anaemia. Evidence consistently suggests that a lower risk of PD is associated with hyperuricaemia, tobacco and coffee use, while a lower risk of AD is associated with moderate alcohol consumption, physical exercise, perimenopausal hormone replacement therapy and good cognitive reserve. Weak evidence suggests that lower risk of PD is associated with increased vitamin E intake, alcohol, tea, NSAIDs, and vigorous physical exercise, and that lower risk of AD is associated with the Mediterranean diet, coffee and habitual NSAID consumption.Conclusions: Several environmental factors contribute significantly to risk of PD and AD. Some may already be active in the early stages of life, and some may interact with other genetic factors. Population-based strategies to modify such factors could potentially result in fewer cases of PD or AD.

Genes involved in the development of Parkinson

“…Several of these studies were not able to demonstrate the connection between the mentioned exposures and PD Forced to be in a wheel chair or in bed Table 2: Main risk factors involved in the development of Parkinson (adapted from Campdelacreu [13]). …”

“…High iron intake, milk consumption (man), chronic anemia Risk Reducer (strong evidence) Hyperuricemia, tobacco, coffee Risk Reducer (weak evidence) Vitamin E, alcohol, tea, vigorous physical exercice development [13]. However, some studies were able to stablish that relationship, since those agents lead to death of dopaminergic neurons [14].…”

Enfermedad de Parkinson y factores ambientales. Un estudio caso-control

“…Las enfermedades neurodegenerativas más frecuentes en este grupo, son la enfermedad de Alzheimer y EP 6,7 .…”

“…Esta patología se asocia a diversos factores de riesgo, es así como en las últimas décadas se han identificado genes relacionados a ella 10 , sin embargo, se ha observado que muchos individuos que son portadores de estas mutaciones genéticas, no necesariamente desarrollan la enfermedad, lo que indicaría la existencia de interacciones entre las variaciones genéticas y factores ambientales, tales como: el consumo de té y café, antecedentes de ruralidad, exposición a tóxicos, antecedentes de patologías crónicas, hábito alcohólico, consumo de tabaco y antecedentes de traumatismo encéfalo craneano (TEC) 6,11 .…”

Neuron-to-neuron propagation of neurodegenerative proteins; relation to degradative systems

“…The most significant risk factor is aging, as the prevalence increases exponentially after 65 years. Environmental risk factors involve an earlier history of cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, type II diabetes, obesity, severe head trauma, smoking and pesticides (Campdelacreu 2014). Carrying the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele is the biggest genetic risk factor of developing sporadic AD, APOE4 is involved in lipid metabolism and is speculated to be involved in Aβ clearance.…”