Living a stressful lifestyle can take its toll on a person -- and it turns out that the same is true for the neurons in your brain. New research shows that dopamine-releasing neurons in a region of your brain called the substantia nigra, when metabolically stressed, can die a premature death. Their death causes Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease with symptoms that include rigidity, slowness of movement and tremors. It has no current known treatment.
According to Eurekalert:
“Everyone loses dopamine-releasing neurons with age ... ‘By lowering their metabolic stress level, we should be able to make dopamine-releasing neurons live longer and delay the onset of Parkinson's disease,’ [said one of the researchers.]”