Do Nutrition Habits Influence on Parkinson`'s Disease Clinical Presentation?

Abstract

Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized with alpha-synuclein pathology. For the majority of patients, except for some genetic forms, etiology is still unknown. There are some implications that food intake and gut microbiota could contribute to PD.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of protein, fruit and vegetable intake on the clinical presentation of idiopathic Parkinson disease

Patients and methods: Patients with idiopathic PD were surveyed for demographic data and nutritional habits in regards to protein, fruit and vegetable intake. Motor symptoms were evaluated using the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III and IV, cognitive impairment using Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and depression using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

Results: We have analyzed data of 96 patients. Patients using fewer dairy products have more often tremor type of PD (p<0.040). We did not find any differences in severity of motor symptoms, disease stage, age when disease start, frequency of motor complications and fluctuation of therapy, depression and cognitive impairment according to protein, fruit and vegetable ingestion.

Conclusion: Higher intake of dairy products could influence the appearance of less favorable forms of Parkinson's disease (rigor type). Protein, fruit and vegetable intake do not influence the disease appearance, severity of motor symptoms, motor fluctuation and complication of therapy, disease stage, the appearance of cognitive impairment nor depression in Parkinson's disease patients.