Privacy Policy
Home | Money | Entertainment | Links | Advertise | Search | Cartoons | Contact | Shop May 24, 2012
Web
NewsMax.com
Powered by
 
Type 2 Diabetes May Raise Parkinson's Risk
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Patients with type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, although the reasons are unclear, Finnish researchers reported on Wednesday.

They found that people with type 2 diabetes were 83 percent more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's later in life than people in the general population. This risk was the same for men and women and was independent of other risk factors.

" Diabetes might increase the risk of Parkinson's disease partly through excess body weight," the researchers wrote in the April issue of Diabetes Care.

Being overweight and not exercising enough are linked with type 2 diabetes , which is becoming more common around the world. Diabetes can lead to blindness, limb loss, heart disease and early death.

Parkinson's is a movement disorder caused by the destruction of certain brain cells. People often develop tremors first, but the incurable disease can progress to paralysis and death.

There are no known major risk factors for Parkinson's , but some studies suggest exposure to chemicals such as pesticides may cause some cases. It affects about 1 million people in the United States alone.

Dr. Gang Hu and colleagues at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland, followed 51,552 Finnish men and women aged 25 to 74 for 18 years. None had Parkinson's disease at the beginning of the study.

Story Continues Below

 

About 600 developed Parkinson's by the end of it, and those who did were nearly twice as likely to have diabetes as well, the researchers found.

They said they would investigate the link further.

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Editor's note:
Protect Your Brain from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Health Issues


Print Page Forward Page E-mail Us RSS Feed
 
Home | Money | Entertainment | Links | Advertise | Search | Cartoons | Contact | Shop
All Rights Reserved © 2012 NewsMax.Com

102