A PLAN to address the Parkinson pandemic.

Research overview

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The Parkinson pandemic continues to spread. Almost 12 million individuals now have the disease, nearly double the estimate from just six years ago. Its human-made nature is also increasingly clear as more studies tie environmental toxicants to the disease. Chief among these are certain pesticides, the dry-cleaning chemicals trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, and air pollution. An etiological role for these toxicants-inhaled or ingested-is also consistent with the emerging brain- and body-first models of Parkinson's disease.To address the pandemic will require a "PLAN" that (1) Prevents the disease; (2) Learns why it starts; (3) Amplifies the voices of persons with the disease and their caregivers; and (4) Navigates the frontier of new treatments. Reducing or eliminating toxicants will help slow its rise. Learning why the disease begins will require investigating exposures, interactions of the environment with genes, and modifiers. Amplifying the voices of those affected can raise awareness, improve care, and change the disease's course. Vastly expanding the scale and scope of research funding will accelerate efforts to prevent the disease and find more effective therapies. If successfully implemented, such a plan will translate to bold "0-10-100" goals by 2035. The goals include a 0% rise in the global incidence of Parkinson's, a 10-fold increase in research funding and in the proportion devoted toward prevention, and 100% of individuals having access to levodopa and receiving appropriate care. The results will lay the foundation for even greater ambitions, including the fall of Parkinson's disease.

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