Head injury, pesticides linked to Parkinson's disease

17 November Fox News

The combination of a past serious head injury and pesticide exposure may be linked to an extra-high risk of developing Parkinson's disease, a new study suggests. The findings don't prove being knocked unconscious or exposed to certain chemicals directly causes Parkinson's, a chronic movement and coordination disorder. But they are in line with previous studies, which have linked head trauma and certain toxins - along with family history and other environmental exposures - to the disease.

"I think all of us are beginning to realize that there's not one smoking gun that causes Parkinson's disease," said Dr. James Bower, a neurologist from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who wasn't involved in the new research.

"There might be many paths to the ultimate development of Parkinson's disease," he told Reuters Health. For example, Bower said, some people who are genetically predisposed might need just one "environmental insult" - such as a blow to the head to set them up for Parkinson's.

Others who aren't naturally susceptible to the disorder could still develop it after multiple exposures. Head trauma and contact with pesticides "may not be directly related, and may be two independent stresses," Columbia University neurologist David Sulzer, who also wasn't part of the study team, told Reuters Health in an email.