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Ibuprofen use linked to decreased risk of Parkinson's disease

Category: General Health

People who regularly take ibuprofen may be at a significantly decreased risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to a new study.

Dr Xiang Gao, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and his colleagues monitored more than 136,000 participants who did not have Parkinson's disease at the beginning of the study.

Each respondent was asked about his or her use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including ibuprofen, aspirin and acetaminophen. After six years, nearly 300 study participants had developed Parkinson's disease.

The research team found that people who took ibuprofen on a regular basis had a 40 percent decreased risk of being diagnosed with the disease.

Moreover, participants who took higher amounts of the drug were less likely to develop Parkinson's than were those who took smaller amounts of the medication.

"Ibuprofen was the only NSAID linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's," said Gao. "Other NSAIDs and analgesics, including aspirin and acetaminophen, did not appear to have any effect on lowering a person's risk of developing Parkinson's."

Gao added that additional research is needed to determine why ibuprofen appears to reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.