Link Between Parkinson’s And Pesticides


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Parkinson’s is growing in a lot number cases that are emerging at a very high pace and it has been found that if this number grows the way it is increasing then it will very soon touch the figure of about 2 million in the coming years only in the US. These numbers are pretty alarming and there are a lot of scientists who are researching on the different things that can stop this disease and the serious effects of this illness, which cause an individual to be crippled totally. Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder and thus is eating out a lot of people each year. The quality of life of these people who are suffering from the Parkinson’s disease is just very poor where they are unable to do the activities of the daily living and thus are totally dependent on their loved ones to take their care. Parkinson’s slowly eat out the individual and therefore leads to a miserable end of an individual, which is very painful for the ones who are near that person. If we see around, we will find families here and there where there are individuals who are suffering from the Parkinson’s disease and if we meet those people, we can clearly see that they are going through a misery to see their loved one in the pain and suffering that he or she is going through, but they or the modern science cannot do anything for them and they are just waiting for that day where they would hear that there is a cure for this disease and they have a good chance of surviving as well as having a very good quality of life.

Parkinson’s disease is cause by the clumps of proteins that aggregate in the synapses of the nerves and these are caused by the degradation of the areas of the brain that make the neurotransmitter known as dopamine. Dopamine just balances out the motor function in the body along with the acetylcholine and its decreasing amount just leads to serious effects on the body, which includes the tremors, gait instability, slurring of speech, muscular stiffness and this is something that just worsens day by day. There are medicines that are being given that contains the dopamine and that slows down the disease process to some degree but the problem just slowly and gradually goes on till it impairs the functional capacity of an individual and leads them to live a terrible life.

The scientists are unable to understand as to what is the actual cause of the Parkinson’s disease that causes the damage of the areas of the brain that produces the dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain. There was a study that was conducted recently on rats in which it was found that if the rats are exposed to the pesticide for a long term, it kills the brain cells that have are producing the neurotransmitter, dopamine and thus it leads to the development of a problem known as Parkinson’s disease. This is a very important research that has shown us as to what is the thing that causes Parkinson’s in rats and they are yet to perform experiments on the humans to find whether that the pesticides have the same effect as they have on humans. The scientists are believing of what they have long thought of that the pesticides have toxins in them and that might be the cause of Parkinson’s in humans.

There was another account in which it was said that the pesticide that was used in the study, known as rotenone, is the pesticide that causes the Parkinson’s in the humans. The scientists believe that this study that was being conducted on the rats have suggested that it caused Parkinson’s and that these environmental toxins can contribute to the Parkinson’s and that just strengthens their belief in doing more researches to find that what are the specific toxins that can truly cause Parkinson’s in the individuals, which is the most common neurological disorder after the Alzheimer’s.

As far as now, there has been no cure for the Parkinson’s disease that has been found. There are new therapies that are being worked on and there are hopes that there would be a time, which should be soon when there would be a treatment that would be found for the Parkinson’s disease and there would be millions of people throughout the world who would be finding the benefit from that. The government has not been funding the experiments that have been using the embryonic tissues in their researches. It is a fact that in about 10 percent of patients, the disease Parkinson’s attacks before the age of 50.

It is being thought that the people in their 50s or 60s are more prone to develop Parkinson’s and this might be due to the chronic exposure of the toxins and among those chemicals include the pesticides, industrial chemicals, as well as tobacco. The experiment that the scientists conducted, they put in tiny pumps inside the rats and this just constantly gave out low doses of rotenone through the jugular veins for the period of about five weeks, whereas rotenone is an agricultural pesticide and is also used as an agent to kill the unwanted fish in the reservoirs. They added that this chemical is ingested frequently through food and can also be ingested by handling the compounds. The scientists added that they gave the rotenone through the jugular veins because the rats might not eat that and that would have been jeopardized the entire research project. They said that the rats gradually started to show the Parkinson’s symptoms because of the administration of that chemical.

By examination of the brain of the rats, it was found that the substantia nigra that is responsible to produce the dopamine was getting damaged and that the rats were not producing as much nicotine as they were before and their nerve cells were showing the protein deposits, which were like the Lewy body deposits, which are found in the cells of Parkinson’s patients.

The scientists added that they do not know as to how the rotenone caused the trigger of Parkinson’s in these rats but it was sure now that these toxic chemicals that are being used as pesticide can cause the development of a very dangerous neurological disorder among a lot of individuals and that can totally change their lives forever and that is the worst part of their lives and it was also said that it needs to seen as to what can be done in later years when it is sure that these pesticides cause Parkinson’s in the individuals because something needs to be done to replace them so that a large population can be prevented to suffer from this debilitating illness.

There was another study conducted in humans where the individuals who took part in the research were about 143,000 men and women and they had no disease at the time when they filled out the questionnaires until 2001. These individuals were asked about their jobs and the potential exposure to the hazardous chemicals. It was found that there were about 413 individuals who developed the Parkinson’s disease as these were the individuals who spent a lot of time near the pesticides. It was found that these individuals who did not have any exposure to the pesticides did not develop the Parkinson’s disease and then it was being suggested that we all should be very careful in our using the pesticides cause there is a relation that it causes Parkinson’s disease when it comes in contact in long term exposures.


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