People who include high levels of vitamin C and E in their diet may have a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study from University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, and Karolinska Institutet, that was published in Neurology.
“Improving [your] diet is a known way to improve overall health, but the research on exactly how diet affects a person’s risk of Parkinson’s disease has been somewhat mixed,” says study author Essi Hantikainen, Ph.D., of University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy. “Our large study found that vitamin C and vitamin E were each linked to a 32% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, and we found the association may be even stronger when intake of both vitamin C and E is high.”
Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder that can affect speech, walking and balance due to a gradual reduction of a chemical in the brain called dopamine. Antioxidants may help counteract unstable molecules and the resulting oxidative stress that can lead to dopamine loss.
For vitamin C, researchers found a rate of 64 cases of Parkinson’s disease per 100,000 person-years in the group that consumed the highest amounts compared to a rate of 132 cases in the group that consumed the lowest amounts.
For vitamin E, the results were similar. Researchers found a rate of 67 cases of Parkinson’s disease per 100,000 person-years in the group that consumed the highest amounts compared to a rate of 110 cases in the group that consumed the lowest amounts. After adjusting for the same factors, people in the highest consumption group had a 32% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease than those in the lowest group.
