A team of scientists at the Denmark’s University of Copenhagen have linked a rare skin condition named Rosacea to an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease as per a report dated March 21, 2016.
This study was published in the journal named JAMA Neurology.
Researchers believe that this link has some relation to a specific enzyme. They found the matrix metalloproteinase enzyme to be a common thread between Parkinson’s disease and Rosacea.
This enzyme breaks down certain tissues in people who suffer from Rosacea and is quite active in cases of Parkinson’s disease as well as other diseases.
In this study, a sample of over 5.4 lakh people from Danish population was examined. It was found that roughly around 68 thousand people were diagnosed with this Rosacea while over 22 thousand people were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Scientists found that people were suffering from Rosacea, who later developed Parkinson’s were diagnosed 2.4 years early as compared to people who didn’t suffer from the same.
Apart from that, people who were prescribed tetracyclines, a class of medication for treating Rosacea were less likely to develop Parkinson’s as compared to those who had left that condition untreated.
Hence, the authors came to the conclusion that there might be a possible pathogenic condition between Parkinson’s and Rosacea, even though the little evidence was shown supporting this link between the 2.
Various unknown factors might also be linked to these two diseases. However, this data provides a new avenue for research in this connection.
Even though the study didn’t prove that Rosacea led to Parkinson’s, it remains possible that it might be influencing the risk of both the diseases.
The authors wrote that further studies might be needed for confirming this observation as well as clinical consequences.
