One of the aims of our nutrition blog is to keep readers informed on findings of new research. This week we are reviewing research that has been published over the past 6 months. To do this we searched Pubmed for studies on Parkinson’s and diet, vitamins and minerals and found 16 studies that we thought were relevant to this blog. Of these 3 were on gut bacteria, 4 on dietary patterns and calorie intake, 3 on B vitamins, 5 on antioxidants and 1 on cholesterol. This is interesting alone to see where the focus of research is. Clearly antioxidants continue to be of interest. Two of these studies looked at the ability of antioxidants to reduce inflammation in the brain.
Gut bacteria is something that we have highlighted in previous blogs to be a big area of research going forward. Over the last 6 months 3 reports were published on this subject, one of which suggests a 2 way communication between the brain and gut. In this study mice were exposed to insecticides either in their gut or brain, some of each group were supplemented with DHA (a form of omega 3). Both unsupplemented groups developed Parkinson’s-like symptoms in both the brain and gut, whilst those given the DHA supplement did not develop motor or GI dysfunction. Reports on dietary patterns looked at obesity and increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases and potential benefits of calorie restricting. The third study in this category looked at ratios of protein to carbohydrate concluding that a low protein to carbohydrate diet delays the onset of Parkinson’s. Studies on B vitamins were researching vitamin B1 (thiamine), B3 (niacin) and folate’s involvement in preventing neurodegeneration through reducing inflammation and their role in energy creation for mitochondrial.
All the studies are listed below. However it is important to be remember that nutritional advice is given on the concensus of opinion of research and not just one study. Also not all of these studies were conducted on humans; 3 of the studies used rodent models and 2 used fruit fly.
Perez-Pardo P, Dodiya HB, Broersen LM, Douna H, van Wijk N, Lopes da Silva S, Garssen J, Keshavarzian A, Kraneveld AD. Nutr Neurosci. 2017 Mar 9:1-12. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2017.1294555.
Hill-Burns EM, Debelius JW, Morton JT, Wissemann WT, Lewis MR, Wallen ZD, Peddada SD, Factor SA, Molho E, Zabetian CP, Knight R, Payami H. Mov Disord. 2017 Feb 14. doi: 10.1002/mds.26942.
Paul R, Choudhury A, Chandra Boruah D, Devi R, Bhattacharya P, Choudhury MD, Borah A. Neurochem Int. 2017 Feb 3. pii: S0197-0186(16)30231-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neuint.2017.01.021.
Kumar A, Christian PK, Panchal K, Guruprasad BR, Tiwari AK.
J Diet Suppl. 2017 Feb 6:1-16. doi: 10.1080/19390211.2016.1275917.
Enhancing NAD<sup>+</sup> salvage metabolism is neuroprotective in a PINK1 model of Parkinson’s disease.
Lehmann S, Loh SH, Martins LM.
Biol Open. 2017 Feb 15;6(2):141-147. doi: 10.1242/bio.022186.
Nonmotor gastrointestinal disorders in older patients with Parkinson’s disease: is there hope?
Georgescu D, Ancusa OE, Georgescu LA, Ionita I, Reisz D.
Clin Interv Aging. 2016 Nov 11;11:1601-1608.
Protective effect of tangeritin in transgenic Drosophila model of Parkinson’s disease.
Fatima A, Khanam S, Rahul R, Jyoti S, Naz F, Ali F, Siddique YH.
Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2017 Jan 1;9:44-53.
Impact of intermittent fasting on health and disease processes.
Mattson MP, Longo VD, Harvie M.
Ageing Res Rev. 2016 Oct 31. pii: S1568-1637(16)30251-3. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2016.10.005.
Relationship Between Obesity, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease: an Astrocentric View.
Martin-Jiménez CA, Gaitán-Vaca DM, Echeverria V, González J, Barreto GE.
Mol Neurobiol. 2016 Oct 28.
Low protein to carbohydrate ratio diet delays onset of Parkinsonism like phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster parkin null mutants.
Bajracharya R, Ballard JW.
Mech Ageing Dev. 2016 Dec;160:19-27. doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2016.10.003.
Olive polyphenols: new promising agents to combat aging-associated neurodegeneration.
Casamenti F, Stefani M.
Expert Rev Neurother. 2017 Apr;17(4):345-358. doi: 10.1080/14737175.2017.1245617.
Intake of vitamin B before onset of Parkinson’s disease and atypical parkinsonism and olfactory function at the time of diagnosis.
Håglin L, Johansson I, Forsgren L, Bäckman L.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jan;71(1):97-102. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.181.
Thiamine Deficiency and Neurodegeneration: the Interplay Among Oxidative Stress, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, and Autophagy.
Liu D, Ke Z, Luo J.
Mol Neurobiol. 2016 Sep 5. [Epub ahead of print] Review.
Role of dietary phenols in mitigating microglia-mediated neuroinflammation.
Rangarajan P, Karthikeyan A, Dheen ST.
Neuromolecular Med. 2016 Sep;18(3):453-64. doi: 10.1007/s12017-016-8430-x. Review.
Nutrition and Lifestyle Intervention on Mood and Neurological Disorders.
Null G, Pennesi L, Feldman M.
J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med. 2017 Jan;22(1):68-74.
Cognitive and neuroprotective effects of chlorogenic acid.
Heitman E, Ingram DK.
Nutr Neurosci. 2017 Jan;20(1):32-39. doi: 10.1179/1476830514Y.0000000146. Review.