17th July 2013 - New research

ALCOHOL AND THE RISK OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

PLoS One [2013] 8 (6) : e66452 (R.Liu, X.Guo, Y.Park, J.Wang, X.Huang, A.Hollenbeck, A.Blair, H.Chen) Complete abstract

Researchers examined total alcohol consumption and consumption of specific types of alcoholic drinks in relation to future risk of developing Parkinson's Disease. It was the largest study of its kind, assessing over 300,000 people. Total alcohol consumption was not associated with Parkinson's Disease. However, the association differed according to the types of alcoholic drinks consumed.

Compared with non-beer drinkers, beer drinkers were less likely to develop Parkinson's Disease, whether they had less than 1, 1 to 2, or 2 drinks per day. For liquor (spirit) drinkers the likelihood of developing Parkinson's Disease appeared to gradually increase with the number of drinks they consumed per day, but with less than one drink per day making no difference.  The results for wine consumption were less clear. However, a drink or two of wine per day made no difference to the risk of Parkinson's Disease. So beer drinking appears to be associated with a reduced likelihood of developing Parkinson's Disease, but liquor (spirit) drinking appears to be associated with an increased likelihood of developing Parkinson's Disease. For a printable version of this article click here. For more news go to Parkinson's Disease News.