Too much or too little iron intake may have a significant impact on the brain, increasing the risk of Parkinson’s disease, according to a US team. A new animal study is the first to demonstrate that both iron deficiency and toxicity are linked to the specific genes and neuronal suicide that lead to dopamine shortages responsible for development of Parkinson’s, says researcher Cathy Levenson from Florida State University. Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative condition affecting movement and balance in more than 1 million Americans each year. The prevalence is expected to increase in ageing populations. In the research, to appear in an upcoming edition of Experimental Neurology, both healthy mice and those at risk for the disease were fed varying amounts of iron.
