A very good reason to take green tea extracts. Note that just one systemic exposure was still rolling a year later. H pylori, gum disease, house dust, gut microflora, etc. - all are sources. And if it crosses your path while you are still in the womb, you are hyper-responsive to it. But the ingredients in green tea seem to stop it in its tracks.
-Rick


1: Glia. 2007 Apr 1;55(5):453-62.

Systemic LPS causes chronic neuroinflammation and progressive neurodegeneration.

Qin L, Wu X, Block ML, Liu Y, Breese GR, Hong JS, Knapp DJ, Crews FT.

Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, School of Medicine, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Inflammation is implicated in the progressive nature of neurodegenerative
diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, but the mechanisms are poorly understood.
A single systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 5 mg/kg, i.p.) or tumor necrosis
factor alpha (TNFalpha, 0.25 mg/kg, i.p.) injection was administered in adult
wild-type mice and in mice lacking TNFalpha receptors (TNF R1/R2(-/-)) to
discern the mechanisms of inflammation transfer from the periphery to the brain
and the neurodegenerative consequences. Systemic LPS administration resulted in
rapid brain TNFalpha increase that remained elevated for 10 months, while
peripheral TNFalpha (serum and liver) had subsided by 9 h (serum) and 1 week
(liver). Systemic TNFalpha and LPS administration activated microglia and
increased expression of brain pro-inflammatory factors (i.e., TNFalpha, MCP-1,
IL-1beta, and NF-kappaB p65) in wild-type mice, but not in TNF R1/R2(-/-) mice.
Further, LPS reduced the number of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive neurons
in the substantia nigra (SN) by 23% at 7-months post-treatment, which progressed
to 47% at 10 months. Together, these data demonstrate that through TNFalpha,
peripheral inflammation in adult animals can: (1) activate brain microglia to
produce chronically elevated pro-inflammatory factors; (2) induce delayed and
progressive loss of DA neurons in the SN. These findings provide valuable
insight into the potential pathogenesis and self-propelling nature of
Parkinson's disease. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID: 17203472 [PubMed - in process]