Coffee’s promise for use in Parkinson’s shot down by new study

Written by Francesca Lake

Novel research has contradicted previous findings that caffeine can help reduce movement symptoms for those with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The previous study, published in 2012, studied 61 patients for 6 weeks. 31 were randomized to placebo and 30 to caffeine. The caffeine group was given 100 mg twice-daily for 3 weeks, then 200 mg twice-daily for 3 weeks. That study demonstrated a 4.7-point improvement on the total Unified PD Rating Scale. “Caffeine, which is so safe and inexpensive, has been linked to a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s,” commented Ronald Postuma (McGill University, Montreal, Canada). “So it was exciting to...

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