Obese Nonsmokers Risk Parkinson's

[Guest guest]

Even though this study is only Japanese American men living in Hawaii noting

smoking as seemingly protective. Wonder about soy use as Canadian study

found elderly Japanese men to have an extremely high rate of senility or

Alzheimers.Obesity here should be termed high insulin resistance.

Wanita

Obese Nonsmokers May Face Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease

By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 09 - Obese individuals who have never

smoked may face an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease,

according to a report in the March 15th issue of the American

Journal of Epidemiology.

" We plan to confirm these preliminary findings in other well-

designed, large prospective studies, " Dr. Honglei Chen from Harvard

School of Public Health, Boston, told Reuters Health. " If confirmed,

we still need to understand the underlying mechanisms. "

Based on previous epidemiological evidence linking obesity and the

risk of Parkinson's disease among Japanese-American men in Hawaii,

Dr. Chen and colleagues used data from the Health Professionals

Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study to study the

association between obesity and Parkinson's disease risk (see

Reuters Health report, October 24, 2002).

Overall, there was no significant association between baseline body-

mass index (BMI), waist circumference, or waist-to-hip ratio and

Parkinson's disease risk, the authors report, and the most recent

BMI was inversely related to Parkinson's disease risk.

Men who gained 45 of more pounds from early adulthood to baseline

faced a nonsignificantly higher risk compared with men who gained

less than 5 pounds, the report indicates, but the association was

reversed in women.

Only among never smokers was greater waist circumference or waist-to-

hip ratio associated with a higher Parkinson's disease risk in both

men and women, the researchers note, even after adjusting for BMI.

Among ever smokers, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were

not associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease, the results

indicate.

" Our current investigation suggests that abdominal obesity may

increase Parkinson's disease risk among nonsmokers, " the authors

conclude. " The fact that we did not find such a positive association

among ever smokers may be explained by the strong inverse

association between smoking and Parkinson's disease. "

The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially over recent

years and obesity has become the leading killer in the United

States, Dr. Chen said. Maintaining a desirable weight may protect

against many chronic diseases, and Parkinson's disease could be one

of them.

Am J Epidemiol 2004;159:547-555.