THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070617
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: MIAMI LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
A possible link between Parkinson's disease and a pesticide used until 1972 has been found by Miami doctors, whose research is being published in today's Annals of Neurology.
``There was never any concrete evidence until this study about small groups of individuals with known Parkinson's disease, and the possible association with pesticides,'' said Dr. Lora Fleming, an epidemiologist at the University of Miami who was involved in the study.
Parkinson's is a slowly progressive disease characterized by slowness, muscle rigidity and tremors. There is no known cause for more than 80 percent of cases, but it appears to be increasing among younger people in industrialized nations, the researchers said.
In the late 1950s, scientists learned that the symptoms are caused by deficiency of the brain chemical dopamine, which helps transmit the messages that enable a body to move smoothly.
Drugs were developed to fool the body into thinking dopamine was present, but still no one knew what was killing the dopamine cells. While drugs helped the symptoms, cells continued to shrivel and die.
Medical surveys of people with Parkinson's suggested that farmers, drinkers of well-water and those with history of pesticide exposure may be at increased risk for the disease.
In examining the brains of 20 people with Parkinson's, seven with Alzheimer's disease and 14 with neither disease, the researchers found small amounts of the pesticide Dieldrin in six of the Parkinson brains, one Alzheimer's brain and none of the control brains.
KEYWORDS: STUDY PARKINSON'S DISEASE by CNB