Parkinson's : In the Water?

Sleeping Giant - December 2025

​​In the first dozen years of this century, much of my massage work was with residents and staff of a retirement community in Boulder. Parkinson’s Disease (PD) was something I saw quite a few of my clients deal with over the years. And I saw how the symptoms were so individual: one client exhibited extreme tremors, one had difficulty speaking, and one would be out for a walk and freeze in the middle of crossing the street.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurological movement disorder. The dopamine-producing neurons in the part of the brain called the substantia nigra become damaged or die. PD affects not just movement, but voice volume, mental health, sleep, facial expression and body language, and can cause pain, decreased movement on one side of the body, and cognitive impairment including poor memory and dementia.

From my perspective, PD is a condition of loss, and can be difficult and demanding for both the person diagnosed and the person caring for them. There are medications and interventions like Deep Brain Stimulation which can help. Importantly, exercise can mitigate symptoms and is thought to help slow progression. 

In Boulder, a man I knew with PD developed an exercise class specifically for those living with Parkinson’s. It was helping him and helping many of the people taking his class. I learned his method and taught for the first few years after I moved back to Steamboat. I know that the folks who came to class had rough days, but we sure had a lot of fun in that class.

Dance for PD, a program developed by Mark Morris Dance Group in NYC, holds classes for people with PD. The collaboration between people living with PD and the members of Mark Morris is beautifully shown in the film Capturing Grace. It is striking how a person’s movements might be jerky or uncontrolled, but turn on the music and that same person is dancing beautifully across the room. 

Much of the research in the past 30 years was focused on finding the genetic cause of PD. But from more recent research, it looks like although genetics may set a person up for PD or other chronic conditions, it is environmental exposure to toxic chemicals that trigger the condition to develop. 

One such chemical is TCE (trichloroethylene), which is also substantially linked to cancer. There is a significant amount of the stuff in the groundwater under Lejeune Marine Corps Base Camp in North Carolina, and Marines stationed there were breathing it in each time they turned on the faucet. One researcher found that Marines at Lejeune were 70% more likely to develop PD than Marines at Camp Pendleton in California whose water is not contaminated with TCE. 

TCE was finally banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in December 2024, but in January 2025 the Trump administration rolled back the ban.  In general, the U.S. is behind the eight-ball when it comes to banning toxic chemicals - a move which would significantly reduce many chronic illnesses. There is even a new field called exposomics which looks at an individual’s exposure over their lifetime - because many of us do not know if we’ve been exposed, and if we have, to what. 

In the meantime, using water filters, air purifiers, and minimizing eating food in plastic may help reduce exposure. 

I think about the people I’ve known who were living with PD, and though some did amazingly well (usually those who had a consistent regimen of exercise, medication, healthy eating and support), how much better it would be if the chemicals that had likely caused their condition had been banned. Life would definitely be better. And I hope we can do better going forward.

Source/Learn More

• Wired article: Scientists Thought Parkinson’s Was in Our Genes. It Might Be in the Water