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American Morning
House Call: Parkinson's Disease, Caffeine, Estrogen
Aired March 11, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to make a "House Call" to look at some of today's top health stories. Dr. Sanjay Gupta on standby.
Good morning -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Yes, sort of an interesting story out today about Parkinson's disease, caffeine and estrogen.
A couple of facts. First of all, it has long been thought that estrogen may, in fact, be protective, thus reducing the risk of Parkinson's disease, which is why women tend to get the disease less than men. It has also been shown in previous studies that caffeine may also actually lower the incidence of Parkinson's disease, at least in men.
Researchers decided to set out and find out whether or not both these things combined might actually further reduce the risk.
First of all, let's just go over Parkinson's disease real quick, remind people of what the classic symptoms of this disease are: tremor on one side of the body, slowness of movement, stiffness of limbs and balance problems.
Now, in this particular study, women who took little or no caffeine but took a hormone replacement therapy were actually found to have a decreased risk of Parkinson's disease by about 65 percent. That would be expected, again, because the hormone replacement therapy may have actually been protecting against Parkinson's disease.
What they went on to do was to actually combine both things, hormone replacement therapy plus significant caffeine intake, and take a look at the numbers. They actually skyrocketed the other way. In fact, it dramatically increased the risk of Parkinson's disease.
So again, both of these things, while individually hormone replacement therapy and caffeine may be protective, as a combined thing they actually seem to have the opposite effect, which is somewhat confusing to the researchers, the people who were conducting the study.
But regardless, it doesn't probably mean anything new in terms of the hormone replacement therapy, which we've been hearing so much about, but just to keep in mind that hormone replacement therapy and caffeine together are certainly a bad combination -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well, I am certainly glad that you know what you know to help us clear up some of the confusion, because you read this stuff and sometimes those studies make no sense at all...
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: Yes, I'll tell you, I spent a couple of hours -- yes, I spent a couple of hours trying to put that together. It is a little confusing, no question.
ZAHN: You cleared it up for us. Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thanks, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired March 11, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to make a "House Call" to look at some of today's top health stories. Dr. Sanjay Gupta on standby.
Good morning -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Yes, sort of an interesting story out today about Parkinson's disease, caffeine and estrogen.
A couple of facts. First of all, it has long been thought that estrogen may, in fact, be protective, thus reducing the risk of Parkinson's disease, which is why women tend to get the disease less than men. It has also been shown in previous studies that caffeine may also actually lower the incidence of Parkinson's disease, at least in men.
Researchers decided to set out and find out whether or not both these things combined might actually further reduce the risk.
First of all, let's just go over Parkinson's disease real quick, remind people of what the classic symptoms of this disease are: tremor on one side of the body, slowness of movement, stiffness of limbs and balance problems.
Now, in this particular study, women who took little or no caffeine but took a hormone replacement therapy were actually found to have a decreased risk of Parkinson's disease by about 65 percent. That would be expected, again, because the hormone replacement therapy may have actually been protecting against Parkinson's disease.
What they went on to do was to actually combine both things, hormone replacement therapy plus significant caffeine intake, and take a look at the numbers. They actually skyrocketed the other way. In fact, it dramatically increased the risk of Parkinson's disease.
So again, both of these things, while individually hormone replacement therapy and caffeine may be protective, as a combined thing they actually seem to have the opposite effect, which is somewhat confusing to the researchers, the people who were conducting the study.
But regardless, it doesn't probably mean anything new in terms of the hormone replacement therapy, which we've been hearing so much about, but just to keep in mind that hormone replacement therapy and caffeine together are certainly a bad combination -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well, I am certainly glad that you know what you know to help us clear up some of the confusion, because you read this stuff and sometimes those studies make no sense at all...
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: Yes, I'll tell you, I spent a couple of hours -- yes, I spent a couple of hours trying to put that together. It is a little confusing, no question.
ZAHN: You cleared it up for us. Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thanks, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
