Omni Brain

Some interesting findings have popped up in the most recent issue of the Archives of Neurology.

It seems that when comparing individuals who have developed Parkinson Disease with family members who have not - the people with PD are less likely to have smoked or drank coffee on a daily basis.

Check out the abstract below:

Smoking, Caffeine, and Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Families With Parkinson Disease

Dana B. Hancock, BS; Eden R. Martin, PhD; Jeffrey M. Stajich, PA-C; Rita Jewett, RN; Mark A. Stacy, MD; Burton L. Scott, PhD, MD; Jeffery M. Vance, PhD, MD; William K. Scott, PhD

Arch Neurol. 2007;64:576-580.

Objective To assess associations between Parkinson disease (PD) and putatively protective factors--smoking, caffeine (coffee, tea, and soft drinks), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen).

Design Family-based case-control study.

Setting Academic medical center clinic.

Participants A total of 356 case subjects and 317 family controls who self-reported environmental exposures.

Main Outcome Measures Associations between PD and environmental measures (history, status, dosage, duration, and intensity) of smoking, coffee, caffeine, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were examined using generalized estimating equations with an independent correlation matrix while controlling for age and sex.

Results Individuals with PD were significantly less likely to report ever smoking (odds ratio = 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.41-0.78). Additional measures of smoking revealed significant inverse associations with PD (P<.05) and trends in odds ratios (P<.005). Increasing intensity of coffee drinking was inversely associated with PD (test for trend P = .05). Increasing dosage (trend P = .009) and intensity (trend P = .01) of total caffeine consumption were also inversely associated, with high dosage presenting a significant inverse association for PD (odds ratio = 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.34-0.99). There were no significant associations between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and PD.

Conclusions Inverse associations of smoking and caffeine were corroborated using families with PD, thus emphasizing smoking and caffeine as important covariates to consider in genetic studies of PD.

Others have commented that the study had a small sample size and the authors don't know what exactly to make of their results - but taking up smoking is probably not the best idea to prevent it - taking up boxing might not be a good idea either. In any case I invite you to make wild, insane, crazy and completely nonsensical speculations as to the link (not that there really is one as we all know *everyone say it with me* correlation does not imply causation) between coffee, cigarettes and Parkinson Disease.