Why eat organic especially if you are living with Parkinson’s Disease?

There is considerable evidence that dietary or environmental exposure to neurotoxin pesticides such as rotenone, paraquat, maneb and MPTP can promote Parkinson's-like neurodegeneration through damage to that part of the brain that is affected in Parkinson's disease (PD), but also by modulating the gut microbiota. 

Roundup, the world's most popular herbicide is supposed to be harmless to humans and other mammals. It works by disrupting a chemical pathway in plants which stops them making essential protein building blocks, resulting in their death. The problem is that microbes that live in the soil and human gut have this same chemical pathway, which means that Roundup disrupts their normal metabolism and alters the thousands of chemicals they produce that in turn keep us healthy. The role of our gut microbes and the metabolites they produce have received increasing attention in regard to PD as well as many other diseases. It has been shown that both the number and make up of gut microbes and microbial metabolites are altered in PD. Current thought is that these alterations may be driving PD progression either via triggering inflammation of the gut and brain or by increasing α-synuclein misfolding in the gut that results in clumps of α-synuclein being transported to the brain via the vagus nerve. This strongly supports the recommendation to consume organic food wherever possible to preserve our good gut bacteria.

That said, you may not be in a financial position to afford to buy 100% organic. The good news is that the Environmental Working Group have created a list* of produce containing the highest amount of pesticide residue called the Dirty Dozen. If you can, I recommend buying these items organic. If you are not able to, then these items should be washed extra well or even peeled, however, washing only removes some of the residue and peeling is ineffective for those chemicals that penetrate deeper. You could consider growing your own.

* This list may change from year to year.

One further reason for buying organic is that the chemicals being used in modern agriculture aren't only affecting us, they are affecting the health of our soil, and if you don't have healthy soil you can't have nutritious food. Human health starts in the dirt, so we need to protect it by empowering organic farmers and regenerative agriculture by choosing organic produce as much as we can. By supporting them, we are enriching our soil, increasing biodiversity and healing our ecosystems, both large (our planet) and small (our gut).