Business Standard

Asthma drug may cut Parkinson’s risk by half NEW BREAKTHROU­GH

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Medicine used to treat asthma may halve risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, claims a study that could pave the way for new treatments for the chronic disease.

Parkinson’s is a disease with unknown causes. It destroys the brain cells that control body movements. Shivering, stiff arms and legs and poor coordinati­on are typical symptoms of Parkinson’s.

Researcher­s at University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway discovered that medicine against asthma and blood pressure is linked to the risk of getting Parkinson’s disease.

They found that while the use of asthma medicine halves the risk of getting Parkinson’s, one type of medicine | | | | Causes of Parkinson’s disease is not know It destroys the brain cells that control body movements Shivering, stiff arms and legs and poor coordinati­on are typical symptoms of Parkinson’s Researcher­s at University of Bergen found that the use of asthma medicine halves the risk of getting Parkinson’s for high blood pressure doubles the risk.

“Our analysis of data from the whole Norwegian population has been decisive for the conclusion in this study,” | | | The study also found that one type of medicine for high blood pressure doubles the risk of Parkinson’s Discoverie­s may be the start of a totally new possible treatment for Parkinson’s disease Results show that these different medicines had opposite effects on the risk of Parkinson’s said Trond Riise, professor at the UiB.

“Our discoverie­s may be the start of a totally new possible treatment for this serious disease. We expect that clinical studies will follow these discoverie­s,” Riise added.

Researcher­s analysed more than 100 million Norwegian prescripti­ons ordered over the last 11 years in Norway.

In the study, the treatment of Parkinson’s was linked to prescripti­ons of asthma medicine and the medicine for high blood pressure. It enabled the researcher­s to see the connection between medicine use and illness.

The Norwegian analysis was done after researcher­s at Harvard University in the US found these effects of the medicines in animal tests and in experiment­s with brain cells in the lab.

Their results showed that these different medicines had opposite effects on the risk of Parkinson’s.

The study was published in the journal Science.

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