DID you know that regularly drinking tea and coffee, as well as avoiding all pesticides and herbicides, can help protect you against getting Parkinson’s Disease?
With thousands of Australians affected by the disease and 18 per cent of people living with Parkinson’s being of working age, it’s important to know your risk factors but also if a sufferer, to help researchers on their mission to find a cure.
Completing his doctorate degree on the disease in 2000 (commenced 1994), Professor Daniel Chan who is affiliated with University of New South Wales in South-West Sydney clinical school (at Bankstown Hospital), was the first in the world to uncover the benefits of tea drinking (which contains caffeine) on reducing the risk factors of getting Parkinson’s.
He is now calling for participants in his ‘Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease in Sydney’ study so he can better look at disease progression and which biomarkers correlate with prognosis.
“The prevalence of Parkinson’s Disease in the community is definitely on the rise due to our increase in longevity as many cases are age-related,” he said.
“We also know the prevalence is under-estimated as most people will not seek out treatment if their symptoms are mild but of course, we would like to know more about individual sufferers and that is why taking part in our study is vital.”
A further study is being conducted by the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, with participants asked to donate a saliva sample to further drill into the genetics of the disease.
To find out more, email: d.chan@unsw.edu.au.
Drinking tea to help prevent Parkinson’s
