Habits could affect Parkinson’s risk

People from families prone to Parkinson’s who drink coffee or smoke are less likely to develop the disease, researchers have reported in a finding that reinforces earlier observations and offers potential paths to treatment.

Dr. William Scott of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who led the study, said the findings point clearly to dopamine -- a message-carrying chemical in the brain that falls to low levels in Parkinson’s.

“Dopamine is important because both smoking and drinking caffeine affect dopamine in the brain,” Scott said in a telephone interview.

Writing in the April issue of the Archives of Neurology, Scott and colleagues said they studied 356 Parkinson’s disease patients and 317 family members without the disease.

“People who had Parkinson’s disease were 40% less likely to say that they had ever smoked 100 cigarettes than their unaffected family members. A similar reduction was seen in the likelihood with coffee,” Scott added.

The researchers said the information offers clues about how environment works with genes to cause disease.