“This one especially was clever because they looked at medical records for people in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and they determined who got Parkinson’s and who didn’t,” said Henry Ford Health Neurologist Dr. Isaac Goldszer of a new study linking the disease to golf courses.
That study, published last month in the JAMA Network Open journal, found that people had the greatest risk of developing the neurodegenerative condition if they live within one to three miles of a golf course. Risk generally decreased along with distance, and effect sizes were the largest in residential areas that shared water services with golf courses “in vulnerable groundwater regions.”
Per the Mayo Clinic, Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder of the nervous system. Symptoms tend to come on slowly and worsen over time. It is the second-most common neurodegenerative disorder in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Around 500,000 people in the nation are diagnosed with the disorder, but the actual number of people suffering with it is believed to be higher – closer to 1 million.
“Of course, given the progressive nature of the disabilities associated with PD, the disease affects thousands more wives, husbands, children, and other caregivers,” said NINDS.
Goldszer said that some experts call Parkinson’s “the most complicated disease in the world,” and explained that it is both challenging to diagnose and to treat.
“Parkinson’s is a syndrome, which is characterized by a loss of dopamine producing neurons in the brain,” he told WWJ Newsradio’s Taylor Dietz. “So, brain cells that make a neurotransmitter, a signaling molecule called dopamine that helps you move, end up dying. And the way we diagnose it is in the clinic. So clinical findings of tremor, stiffness, or rigidity, and then postural and gait changes all come together to produce this entity we call Parkinson’s.”
There are multiple causes or ways to develop the condition. Some are environmental and others are genetic.
Proximity to golf courses would be an environmental risk factor. Authors of the recent study found that the risk of developing Parkinson’s is approximately doubled for people that were one to three miles away from the golf courses as compared to people more than six miles away.
There are more than 15,000 golf courses in the U.S., according to the National Golf Foundation. Florida has the most, followed by California.
Neither state is in the top five with the highest death rates from Parkinson’s, per U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data. Those states are: Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee and New Hampshire. States with the lowest rates are New York, District of Columbia, Nevada, Jersey and Hawaii.
“I think it’s important to remember that the overall risk of Parkinson’s is actually quite low,” Goldszer said. Furthermore, the study didn’t explore the risks of playing golf or working on a golf course, but the doctor said “those questions could be addressed indirectly by some of the other studies we have in the field connecting Parkinson’s risk with farm workers and living rurally, near farms.”
He also said another clever aspect of the new study was the way researchers determined how people were getting exposed to potentially risky substances. That’s where the water service area part comes in.
“I think it does emphasize this concern about where we’re getting our water from, how our water is being cleaned and what’s getting into it?” he said. In light of the results, Goldszer thinks we need to rethink the way pesticides are used at golf courses.
“One idea would be public health policies, which they could limit the way that either golf courses or other kind of green spaces are able to use these neurotoxic pesticides,” he said.
However, Goldszer doesn’t think people should panic, or stop enjoying looking out over the picturesque golf courses they might live near.
“We want to be very... cognizant of what we’re putting in our bodies and what we are exposing our bodies to,” he said. So where are you getting your water from? What type of food are you eating? Can you simplify? Can you eat food that looks like food? Can you move your body every day? Can you take a walk after dinner and make it to the gym three times a week? I would say those are the things that would influence your health much more than where you live is how you live.”