BehindTheMedspeak: Does organic food cause Parkinson's disease?

Neurologist J. Timothy Greenamyre has shown, in animal studies published in the journals Experimental Neurology and Journal of Neuroscience in 2003, that rotenone — a pesticide often used in organic farming because it is made from natural products — is capable of inducing protein aggregation, killing dopamine–producing neurons, inhibiting cellular energy–producing organelles, and causing subsequent motor deficits.

The question arises: is organic safer, or simply a more expensive way of getting sick?

I just read of the association between the rotenone and Parkinson's disease in a sidebar to an article about Parkinson's that appeared in the July issue of Scientific American.

I asked my crack research team to look more deeply into the matter and they brought back evidence that as far back as the year 2000, Greenamyre and his research team had found and published evidence for a possible cause–and–effect relationship.

Read this story and see for yourself what's been out there and under the radar for at least five years now.

I'm sure you won't be reading about this association in any magazine on the newstand at Whole Foods so it's a good thing you stop by here every so often.