Chocolate and Parkinson’s Disease

A recent study published in the Neuroscience Bulletin by Borah et al. at the Assan University in India showed that B-Phenethylamine (B-PEA, a substance naturally found in cococa beans) could be a causative factor for Parkinson’s disease.

The scientists said: “As consumption of some B-PEA-enriched food items has become an addiction in modern life, our proposed mechanism is of enormous significance and impact.” That is the reason behind their suggestion of limiting consumption of chocolate.

Nevertheless, their statements are quite arguable, since it focuses on rodent studies. They admit that they need deeper investigation on human needs.

Study shows that a person eating a standard size of 100g chocolate per day, he or she has a B-PEA intake of 0.36-0.83 mg per day. It relies upon on the type of chocolate ingested, though.

Past research indicated that 0.63-1.25mg/day of chocolate consumption could bring about Parkinson’s in adult mice.

One of the scientists said: “These results suggest that the amount of chocolate that a person takes normally might be toxic to dopaminergic neurons.”

Don’t worry, given that some antioxidants also found in chocolate can fight these negative effects, since so many studies have found out that polyphenols like cathechins could protect against Parkinson’s disease.

B-phenethylamine is also found in wine and cheese. Nevertheless, chocolate is supposedly the highest-containing food item.

Scientists don’t have a full grasp on Parkinson’s disease yet, but too much production of reactive oxygen species and the resulting mitochondrial complex-I dysfunction have reportedly been the underlying cause.

Researchers have always been curious about the beneficial effects of chocolate on Parkinson’s disease, considering Parkinson’s patients have the tendency to eat more chocolate than the general population.

It has been recently found out that there were no scientific evidences that showed how chocolate improved the motor function in Parkinson’s patients. They concluded that the increased chocolate consumption is “largely enigmatic.”