The benefits of coffee and caffeine in Parkinson Disease have been explored more and more these days. It has been known for 10 years or more that caffeine seems to lower the risk of getting PD in the first place, but there are some populations who benefit from it even more due to a gene that helps lower risk in the coffee drinker. The mechanism appears to be via the adenosine system; caffeine inhibits the adenosine A2A receptor, which has further effects inside of brain cells. An additional benefit of coffee for PD patients is that, of course, it reduces the sleepiness during the daytime which bothers many PD patients. The apparent therapeutic effects are significant enough that several pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop caffeine-related molecules and there are National Institutes of Health (USA) approved studies currently underway. See links below:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-coffee-key-ingredient-treatments-parkinson.html
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=caffeine+parkinson’s+disease&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-coffee-key-ingredient-treatments-parkinson.html
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=caffeine+parkinson’s+disease&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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