30% of people use coffee and Cannabis for Parkinson’s
Study Finds Over a Third of Parkinson's Patients Use Natural Health Aids Like Cannabis, Often Without Doctor's Knowledge.
A new study in the Journal of Parkinson's reports that over a third of people use natural health aids like coffee and cannabis for Parkinson's - but less than half had discussed this with their doctor.
A study recently published in the Journal of Parkinson’s has discovered that more than one third of people with Parkinson’s are using natural health products to help treat their condition’s symptoms. The results of this study has also revealed, however, that a worrying percentage of these people are not revealing to their healthcare professionals that they’re using products like coffee, turmeric and cannabis for Parkinson’s.
The study — whose authors include Sandra Diadhiou from Université Laval in Canada, and Professor Bas Bloem from Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands— surveyed 367 people with Parkinson’s from across the Netherlands, all of whom are part of the PRIME-NL (Proactive and Integrated Management and Empowerment of Parkinson’s Disease – Netherlands) database.
The goal of the study was not only to find out about the prevalence of using natural health products to alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms, but also to discover if respondents were aware of potential interactions between natural health products and their Parkinson’s medication, and whether they’d discussed using natural health products with their doctor.
The results showed that:
- 36% of respondents confirmed they were using natural health aids like coffee and cannabis for Parkinson’s
- Of these, coffee was the most popular product in use (16% of respondents), followed by cannabis (13%) and turmeric (10%).
- Other supplements used included velvet bean and chamomile.
- 39% of natural health product users were aware of possible interactions with prescribed Parkinson’s medication.
- Only 39% of users had discussed these supplements with their healthcare provider.
The results of the survey led the study to make two recommendations: firstly, that there is “the need for additional research efforts into the health benefits and safety of these products”, and secondly, that “open discussions with their healthcare providers are encouraged to ensure efficacy and safety.”
A previous survey by the Michael J Fox Foundation in the USA during 2022 showed that, of almost 2,000 people surveyed, 70% were using medical cannabis for Parkinson’s, but a third hadn’t yet told their doctor.
Cannabis for Parkinson’s: the facts so far
As well as here at Parkinson’s Europe, the Michael J Fox Foundation are among several prominent Parkinson’s organisations, including The Parkinson’s Foundation in the US, Fight Parkinson’s in Australia, and Parkinson’s UK, who have urged people to exercise caution around using cannabis for Parkinson’s, citing a lack of current evidence into its efficacy and safety.
Our Research Manager, Amelia Hursey, explains:
“With homoeopathic and natural product treatments it’s rare to be able to purchase products over the counter that have a high enough concentration level of the active compound to have a therapeutic effect. For instance, using Cannabinoids or CBD (an active ingredient in cannabis that is derived from the hemp plant) as a relaxant can work, however knowing what the concentration is within the item you consume and how much you would need to have a therapeutic effect is very hard to evaluate.”
Parkinson’s UK is currently running a research trial to see if Cannabidiol (CBD) can be used by people with Parkinson’s to treat hallucinations and delusions.
Coffee for Parkinson’s: the facts so far
There is a decidedly mixed consensus around how effective coffee is as a treatment for Parkinson’s symptoms.
While some studies suggested that caffeine might help slow the development of symptoms, other research found that certain symptoms improved when treated with caffeine, but others got slightly worse.
A more recent study, which appeared in the Annals of Neurology journal in May 2024, concluded that caffeine does not improve symptoms.
Turmeric for Parkinson’s: the facts so far
Turmeric is a spice made from the ground rootstalk of the curcuma plant, and an active ingredient of turmeric is curcumin, which has long been believed to have medicinal properties.
This article in Science of Parkinson’s gives an excellent explainer of how and why turmeric has been thought to help certain Parkinson’s symptoms, which include its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. We’ve also previously reported on a Japanese study which found turmeric oil could be beneficial in treating Parkinson’s.
