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Virtual New York - UPI Monday, 13 August 2001 19:29 (ET) Constipation linked to Parkinson's disease ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- According to new data from a long-term study, men who suffer from constipation are nearly three times more likely to eventually develop Parkinson's disease. "This is a statistical confirmation of what neurologists already suspected from clinical study and what clinicians have noted anecdotally for almost two centuries, a connection between constipation and Parkinson's," Robert Abbott, Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville told United Press International. "This study is remarkable in its findings and unique in the length of time that it followed the subjects," Dr. Robert Friedland, professor of medicine at Case-Western Reserve University Medical School in Cleveland told UPI. "It is truly a first," he added. This study is part of a larger 24-year research project called the Honolulu Heart Program. Researchers gathered and are now studying health data from 6,790 male residents of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, aged 51 to 75 at the beginning of the study in the 1960's. Of those, 96 men eventually developed Parkinson's disease. Men who reported constipation were nearly three times as likely to develop Parkinson's disease over the 24 years. Constipation is defined as less than one bowel movement per day. This is the first prospective study to show that constipation can predate symptoms of Parkinson's by many years. The study appears in the August 14 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "We can't know yet whether exposure to something early in life left the men vulnerable to both conditions or perhaps constipation in men is an early sign of a predisposition to Parkinson's, maybe through a neurological connection. In any case, it is an extremely important moment in Parkinson's research. It will set a direction for future research," Friedland said. The researchers accounted for the effects that differences such as age, diet and lifestyle could have on bowel functioning and Parkinson's disease. Abbot said that adjustments for those factors made no change in the results, and that the strong tie between bowel movement frequency and the risk of Parkinson's disease remained. (Reported by Bruce Sylvester from West Palm Beach, Fla.) -- SOURCE: Virtual New York - UPI - United Press International http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=211327 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn