Living in an areas rich in foliage reduces risk of developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases

Harvard School of Public Health researcher Jochem Klompmaker and colleagues have published the results of a new study based on residential zip codes suggesting that living in an areas rich in foliage reduces risk of developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Greenness for each zip code was determined using information from the U.S. Geological Survey Protected Areas database.  But, this was not true for people living in southern states suggesting there may be more to the story.  The trend was also reduced for people living in areas with high rates of poverty again suggesting there is more to this story.  After adjusting for air pollution levels in each ZIP code, the relationships between greenness and disease risk weakened, and the influence of parkland fell to almost zero.   These findings add to the growing body of literature implicating pollution and other controllable environmental factors in the risk for developing neurodegenerative disease.   

Link to story in Alzforum

Link to original peer-reviewed publication in PubMed