Ibuprofen May Help Stave Off Parkinson's

Regular use of ibuprofen significantly lowers the risk for developing Parkinson's disease, Harvard researchers report.

People who took three or more tablets a week showed a 40% lower risk than those who didn't take the common pain reliever, their study found.

Study author Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, an instructor and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says the findings are important for anyone at increased risk for Parkinson's because most people with the disease eventually become severely disabled.

"There is thus a need for better preventive interventions," Gao sayd. "In this context, our findings regarding the potential neuroprotective effect of ibuprofen, one of the most commonly used analgesics, on Parkinson's disease may have important public health and clinical implications."

Parkinson's is a disease that affects nerve cells in the brain that control the movement of muscles. It affects an estimated 1 million people in the United States, men far more often than women. The exact cause is unknown, but experts believe it's a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Gao says that though the drug levodopa is the current standard treatment for Parkinson's, much more is needed. He is scheduled to present the findings in Toronto at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

The findings came from an analysis of data on 136,474 people who did not have Parkinson's at the start of the study. In a six-year span, 293 were diagnosed with the disease. Those who took the largest doses of ibuprofen were less likely to have developed Parkinson's than were those who took smaller amounts of the drug, the study found.

No other pain reliever was found to lower the risk for Parkinson's.

— Source: Brigham and Women's Hospital