This Widely Used Chemical Doubles Parkinson’s Risk — How To Reduce Exposure
Key takeaways
- Author: Ava Durgin May 15, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Ava Durgin Assistant Health Editor Ava Durgin is the former Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen.
- Over the past decade, researchers have been quietly uncovering another piece of the puzzle: the environments we live in, and the chemicals we’re exposed to over time, may matter far more than we once thought.
- A new study1 from UCLA Health sheds light on this concern.
Why this matters: practical guidance grounded in recent research or expert insight.
Author: Ava Durgin May 15, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Ava Durgin Assistant Health Editor Ava Durgin is the former Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen. She holds a B.A. in Global Health and Psychology from Duke University.Image by Sergey Narevskih / Stocksy May 15, 2026Parkinson’s disease is often talked about as an inevitable part of aging or a roll of the genetic dice. But that explanation has always felt incomplete. Why do rates keep rising? And why do so many people with Parkinson’s have no clear family history at all?
Over the past decade, researchers have been quietly uncovering another piece of the puzzle: the environments we live in, and the chemicals we’re exposed to over time, may matter far more than we once thought.
A new study1 from UCLA Health sheds light on this concern. The research links long-term exposure to a common agricultural pesticide, chlorpyrifos, to more than a 2.5-fold increase in Parkinson’s disease risk. What makes this study stand out isn’t just the strength of the association; it’s that the researchers were also able to show how this chemical damages the brain, down to the cellular level.