My thanks to Rick and Jo*mar for for their postings on the effect of diesel exhaust and radon, respectively.
The paper by Willis et al. [1] shows geographical differences in prevalence and incidence rates for PD. And I've posted that these correlate with the geographical distribution of toxins such as nitric oxide, surface ozone and histoplasma.
I think that most people would accept that environmental toxins play a role in the aetiology of PD.
It is the next step that interests me here: can a PwP make use of this information?
It comes down to your view of the aetiology of your version of PD.
I take it for granted that there is a genetic component to PD, but beyond that there are a number of ways the environment could affect the outcome.
A single toxin assault could kill off enough dopaminergic neurons to give PD symptoms. This could be immediate or gradual. Or the assaualt could trigger an immune response that leads inexorably to insufficient dopamine being produced. But, each way, if this were the case, by the time of PD diagnosis turning off the toxin assault by moving house, or other means, would make no difference to progression rates.
Alternatively, there may be a form of the disease where the damage is done at a rate linked to the size of the instantaneous toxin assault: when the toxin assault is strong, progression is fast; when the toxin assault is weak, progression is slow. In this case, reducing the toxin flow, would reduce the rate of progression. Ideally, we would like to reduce the toxin load directly, for instance by changing diet or filtering the air etc.. But, since we don't know what causes PD, we don't know what to change. However, the fact that we don't have this direct knowledge, doesn't mean that we can do nothing. We could move to those areas where the epidemiological evidence shows that progression rates are low.
I live about 2 miles east of a major motorway, M6. The section near Stafford is used by over 100,000 vehicles per day. The prevailing wind blows the diesel exhaust that Rick mentions towards me.
Do I move?
Would you move house if you thought the rate of progression would be reduced by 10%?
Would you move house if you thought the rate of progression would be halved?
Has anyone found that air filtering has made a diference?
[1] "Geographic and Ethnic Variation in Parkinson Disease: A Population-Based Study of US Medicare Beneficiaries"
Allison Wright Willis, Bradley A. Evanoff, Min Lian, Susan R. Criswell, and Brad A. Racette
Neuroepidemiology. 2010 April; 34(3); 143-151.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2865395/
John