Is It Really Possible to Lower Your Parkinson’s Risk?

Two neurologists say environmental risks are a major culprit. Take action to help protect your brain today

Sonya Collins

Reviewed by

Orly Avitzur, M.D.

Comments

Published March 26, 2026

A male doctor holding up an umbrella over himself and a male patient

Courtesy: Benjamin Currie

Key takeaways:

Research links certain pesticides, dry-cleaning solvents and polluted water to greater Parkinson’s risk, but many exposures can be reduced.
Healthy habits such as a Mediterranean-style diet, regular exercise and good sleep may help the brain withstand environmental stressors over time.
Personal steps can lower exposure, but experts say broader environmental protections remain essential for reducing population-level risk.

Parkinson’s disease can affect anyone, it’s true. Your personal risk is based on a combination of your genes and environmental factors. But having certain genes that raise risk doesn’t guarantee you’ll one day have the disease. More than just a disease that simply “happens” to you, mounting evidence suggests that the progressive neurodegenerative condition is largely driven by risk factors that — with a little knowledge and planning — can be minimized.

The Parkinson’s Plan, a 2025 book by Dr. Ray Dorsey and Dr. Michael S. Okun, lays out 25 actions — some large, some small — you can take to reduce your risk for Parkinson’s disease. They focus mostly on ways to avoid or reduce exposure to chemicals that can be toxic to the brain, alongside healthy habits known to protect your brain.

“If a middle-aged adult adopts and implements the Parkinson’s 25 today, we can’t promise a specific percent reduction for any one person,” says Okun, the book’s coauthor and national medical adviser to the Parkinson’s Foundation. “However, the direction is clear: There will be fewer exposures, healthier metabolism, better sleep and more exercise. This we believe will add up to offering more protection for the brain networks relevant to Parkinson’s and will be a critical addition to achieve healthier living.”

While no strategy can eliminate risk entirely, research suggests that reducing toxic exposures and strengthening brain resilience may influence long-term neurological health.

You could take some of these steps to help reduce your risk as soon as today.

Reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals

A growing body of research ties certain chemicals in our environment to Parkinson’s disease because those chemicals kill nerve cells. Parkinson’s is caused by loss of the nerve cells that produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that helps control muscle movements and is part of the brain’s pleasure and reward centers.

While our bodies continue to grow some types of neurons throughout adulthood, we are born with a fixed number of dopamine-producing neurons. As we get older, they begin to die off. “One cell after another dies, and others take over until they can’t anymore,” says Dr. Beate Ritz, a professor of environmental health and of neurology at UCLA. “By the time you’ve lost 60 percent of those neurons, you see motor symptoms.”

The main chemical culprits that damage nerve cells seem to be certain pesticides, the dry-cleaning chemicals trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), and air pollution.

The term “pesticide,” which includes insecticides and herbicides, describes more than 1,000 different active ingredients that kill some form of life, from weeds to insects, in unique ways, Ritz explains. Traditional insecticides are derivatives of sarin gas, the nerve agent used in the Gulf War to kill soldiers. They “harm nerve cells by exciting them too much, overstimulating them until they croak,” she explains.

Pesticides can be absorbed through the skin, and inhaled or ingested through food or water or by transfer from hand to mouth. Here are ways to reduce your pesticide exposure today:

Wash your produce, even if it’s organic.
If you drink wine, go for pesticide-free brands.
Avoid household insecticides, such as permethrin, found in mothballs, flea collars, household bug sprays and some specialized outdoor clothing one might wear camping, hiking or on safari. When these can’t be avoided, wear a mask and wash your hands after use.
Garden with gloves and a mask, and in a well-ventilated area if indoors or in a greenhouse. Consistent exposure to weed killer and even the natural insecticides produced from chrysanthemums (“mums”) can have neurotoxic effects.
Call the golf course before setting a tee time to ask if they’ve sprayed with pesticides in recent days. Avoid playing there on the day they spray and the day after. And never lick your golf ball. (Yes, this is something people do.)

Steps to Reduce Parkinson's Risk

Okun and Dorsey offer several research-based ways to reduce Parkinson’s risk:

Wash your produce, even if it’s organic
If you drink wine, choose pesticide-free
Avoid, limit or protect yourself from household insecticides
Garden with care
Be mindful of the golf green
Dry-clean with caution
Don’t buy groceries near a dry cleaner
Use a water filter
Use an air purifier
Wear a mask and gloves during unavoidable chemical exposure
Roll up your windows in traffic
Follow a Mediterranean eating pattern
Exercise regularly
Avoid or manage diabetes
Drink caffeinated coffee or tea
Sleep well
Avoid head trauma

_{Source: The Parkinson’s Plan}

“Solvents like PCE and TCE can release gas from clothes and contaminate indoor air,” Okun says.

Your exposure doesn’t stop there, says Dr. Caroline Tanner, a neurologist in the Movement Disorders Clinic at UCSF. Buildings next to dry cleaners can be toxic, too. “Dry-cleaning fluids are volatile organic compounds, so they can evaporate into buildings and concentrate there, and you have no clue that you’re being exposed.”

PCE can seep through the walls into the spaces next door to dry cleaners. The chemical has been found in dairy products sold in supermarkets next door to dry cleaners. Okun and Dorsey urge people to avoid grocery stores near dry cleaners. It’s not clear how close is too close, but a French environmental study found high concentrations of TCE up to 200 feet from dry cleaners.

Chemicals that raise your risk for Parkinson’s disease could also be in your water supply, depending on the type and age of the groundwater, according to a large U.S.-based study reported in 2026. Researchers compared the groundwater sources of more than 12,000 people with Parkinson’s disease and about 1.2 million similar adults without the condition. Risks differed depending on the age of the aquifer and whether it was in carbonate rock, which can allow easier contamination with modern pollutants.

You can further reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals in the water, air and your home or workplace when you:

Use a carbon water filter where the water enters the home, on your faucet or in a water pitcher
Use an air purifier in your home
Wear a mask and gloves during any unavoidable chemical exposures

“Because we don’t have a clean definition of the amount of chemical exposure that is safe for everyone,” Okun says, “the commonsense approach would be to choose safer alternatives whenever you can, and when you can’t, reduce the dose with ventilation, distancing and protective barriers.”

Practice healthy habits that help protect the brain

You can’t completely eliminate your exposure to harmful chemicals. They are everywhere. But you can take action to make your brain more resilient against these assaults.

“Don’t overlook the brain resilience pillars of diet, exercise, sleep and avoiding head trauma, Okun says, “These actions proactively support brain health and likely help the brain better withstand the hits from toxicants and inflammation, especially over decades.”

A Mediterranean-style diet, for example, has been suggested to blunt the neurotoxic effects of the agricultural pesticides, such as paraquat, that farmers come in contact with, according to Tanner’s research.

Paraquat (paraquat dichloride) is a highly toxic, restricted-use herbicide used worldwide for weed control, crop desiccation and agricultural management. It kills plants on contact and can cause serious illness or death if ingested, inhaled or absorbed. It’s banned in more than 70 countries. Handling paraquat in the U.S. requires a license.

“We found that people who had diets high in polyunsaturated fats, found in fish, nuts, seeds, tofu and key constituents of healthy or Mediterranean-type diets, did not have an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, even if they were exposed to paraquat,” Tanner says. “In contrast, people [exposed to paraquat] with diets low in these fats had a fourfold increased risk of PD.”

Okun and Dorsey recommend that those seeking to prevent Parkinson’s disease:

Adopt a Mediterranean eating pattern, which is plant-forward, rich in healthy, nonsaturated fats and lower in red meats.
Exercise regularly, which may not only prevent Parkinson’s disease but slow its progress in people who have it.
Avoid or manage diabetes, which may raise risk for Parkinson’s and accelerate its progression.
Drink caffeinated coffee or tea, which is linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s, possibly because it protects dopamine-producing nerve cells from harm that comes from environmental toxins.
Get sufficient sleep. During sleep, the brain clears out toxins, including alpha-synuclein, the protein that accumulates to cause problems in Parkinson's disease.
Avoid head trauma, which raises risk for Parkinson’s disease and may also amplify the effects of pesticide exposure.
Wear seat belts, wear a helmet and use modifications during sports such as no heading in soccer.

Advocate for change

It’s important to understand that taking steps to limit personal exposure does not eliminate contact with harmful chemicals entirely. Many exposures are invisible, odorless and embedded in our environment. Parkinson’s researchers stress that stronger environmental protections and industry accountability remain essential to reducing population-level risk.

“We really need to get industry to clean up their act and not poison the environment,” Ritz says. “What you can do is write your congressman to make EPA standards stronger.” Dramatic improvements in air quality over the past 50 years have been due to legislation to regulate emissions. She urges individuals to continue to push for more protections from their lawmakers.

After thousands of U.S. farmers and agricultural workers sued Switzerland-based paraquat manufacturer Syngenta, the multinational agribusiness announced in March 2026 it would stop manufacturing the toxic pesticide, though it did not cite the lawsuits as the cause of the decision.

Still, individual changes on a personal level matter, too. Parkinson’s disease develops over decades, shaped by cumulative stress on dopamine-producing neurons. Reducing toxic exposures, adopting protective lifestyle habits and supporting policies that clean up air, water and food systems can all contribute to lowering that burden.

No single step guarantees prevention. But taken together — across households, communities and governments — the choices made across a lifetime may shape how resilient the brain remains with age.

“It’s never too late to start,” Okun says, “Prevention is not one magic trick. It’s stacking small advantages that all add up.”

The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

%{postComment}%

Sonya Collins is a contributing writer and award-winning health and medical journalist. Her work has appeared in Fortune and Scientific American and on WebMD.com.

Orly Avitzur, M.D., a former president of the American Academy of Neurology, is a practicing neurologist in Tarrytown, New York, and is working on a medical memoir, A Very Good Brain. She is the former medical director at Consumer Reports and a past editor in chief of Brain & Life magazine.