It is well known that Parkinson’s disease mainly affects older people. But other than that, what other factors indicate a greater chance of developing this debilitating disease?
Let’s take age itself as a starting point, because there are some nuances that are generally not known. According to popular perceptions, about 90% of people with the disease are over 60 years old.
This is true even if you consider the age at which the first symptoms appear. Not even 10% of cases are diagnosed in adults under 40 years of age. Most recent diagnoses are in people over 60 years of age.
However, that is not the whole story.
Among those over 60, the risk increases from 60 to 75 years. After that, it drops drastically. In other words, someone who is 85 years old is less likely to get Parkinson’s disease than someone who is 70, statistically speaking. This may seem surprising to most people.
Let’s look at it from another angle. The above statistics apply to those who have been diagnosed with the disease. If we take into account what is called parkinsonism (that is, Parkinson’s symptoms that have other causes or symptoms that can turn into the disease itself), 15% of people between 60 and 75 years old suffer from it. And between the ages of 75 and 84, a staggering 30% have the disease.
Currently, about 3% of the population over 65 is affected by the disease. But this percentage is estimated to double over the next four decades.
Age obviously has an impact on disease. What other factors are there?
Obviously, the genre is another. It is estimated that men have about twice the risk of developing Parkinson’s than women. This applies to all age groups.
Researchers theorize that the female hormone estrogen is responsible for the lower incidence of the disease among women. There are two facts that support this point of view.
The first is that women who have had hysterectomies have a somewhat higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Second, women who receive hormone replacement therapy tend to have a lower incidence of the condition. These facts seem to imply that estrogen plays a role in the prevention of Parkinson’s disease.
The disease also appears to progress faster in men than in women. In terms of symptoms, women tend to be prone to gait disturbances, while men are more at risk of tremors and stiffness.
Heredity seems to play a role in the disease. Someone whose siblings who have developed Parkinson’s disease before age 40 are at higher risk of falling victim to the disease. However, if siblings develop the disease only in later years, heredity does not seem to play a prominent role.
There are differences between races in the incidence of Parkinson’s, so ethnicity seems to play a role. Caucasians are at higher risk than Asian Americans or African Americans. Some research indicates that while races other than Caucasians have a lower overall risk, they may be at higher risk for other types of parkinsonism, which involves problems with the thought process.
Aside from the above, some evidence suggests that caffeine might offer protection against this disease, to some extent. Drinking coffee regularly, it seems, is a useful preventive measure.
As can be seen, some factors appear to create an increased risk of a person developing Parkinson’s disease. Researchers are looking for more clues that will one day lead to a full understanding of this condition.
