Parkinson’s Disease Has Become a Pandemic; Here Are the Possible Causes

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Parkinson’s disease has been a rare disorder for most of human history. Yet a combination of aging demographics and byproducts of industrialization may have created a Parkinson’s pandemic, according to a 2018 review of studies in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that disability and death due to the disease were increasing faster than for any other neurological disorder, including Alzheimer’s.

‘Pandemic’

In 1817, Dr. James Parkinson first described the condition in London. It was rare, and he only found six individuals with the disease.