The Link Between Golf Course Proximity and Parkinson's Disease
The Omega-3 Supplementation Guide
A blueprint for choosing the right fish oil supplement — filled with specific recommendations, guidelines for interpreting testing data, and dosage protocols.
You'll also receive updates from Rhonda & FoundMyFitness
In this clip from Dr. Rhonda Patrick's appearance on Mayim Bialik's Breakdown, she discusses a population-based case-control study of residential proximity to golf courses and Parkinson's disease. Living within one mile of a golf course was associated with 126% higher odds of Parkinson's disease than living more than six miles away. Risk was generally highest within one to three miles and decreased with distance. [1]
The investigators also examined drinking-water service areas and groundwater vulnerability. Living in a water-service area containing a golf course was associated with nearly twice the odds of Parkinson's disease compared with service areas without golf courses. The association was also stronger when the golf course was in an area with groundwater that was more vulnerable to contamination. [1]
These findings identify water transport as an important route for future pesticide-exposure research. They support direct monitoring of drinking water and specific chemicals around intensively managed land. The study did not identify glyphosate, Roundup, or another individual pesticide as the source of the observed association, so verified local testing provides more useful information than proximity alone. [1]
The mechanistic concern is broader than one herbicide. Dr. Patrick discusses paraquat and rotenone because both can damage mitochondria and are used experimentally to model Parkinson-like neurodegeneration, but that rationale does not prove that either chemical caused disease in this population. The study's water-service-area signal is also different from a measured household exposure: it suggests a possible transport route but did not test each participant's tap water. Where pesticide contamination is a credible local concern, utility reports or targeted testing can identify what a standard report covers, and a filter should be selected and certified for the specific contaminant rather than assumed to remove every pesticide.
This clip is excerpted, with permission, from Dr. Rhonda Patrick's appearance on Mayim Bialik's Breakdown. Thank you to Mayim Bialik's Breakdown for allowing us to share it.
- ^ a b c Krzyzanowski, Brittany; Mullan, Aidan F.; Dorsey, E. Ray; Chirag, Sai Shivani; Turcano, Pierpaolo; Camerucci, Emanuele, et al. (2025). Proximity To Golf Courses And Risk Of Parkinson Disease JAMA Network Open 8, 5.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick: There's a really interesting study that came out recently that living near a golf course dramatically increases the risk of Parkinson's disease because golf courses are notoriously sprayed with Roundup, glyphosate. I mean, they're— I mean, that's like you look at a golf course, like, I don't know that I can find a weed like at any golf course I've ever been to. So the pesticide exposure is I would say the most classical way of inducing Parkinson's-like symptoms in animals. I mean, that's what researchers do to induce Parkinson's is they give paraquat, rotenone, right? These things cause mitochondrial toxicity. Your mitochondria are the energy-producing organelles in your cells. They cause it in the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, right? Part of the brain. So, the prevailing theory with the golf course is that these pesticides are getting into the water source, and people that live near the golf course are drinking water that has this, you know, the pesticides in it— Roundup, glyphosate, whatever they're using.
Jonathan Cohen: So golfers don't have to be terrified necessarily, like if you're spending a lot of time on golf courses versus living next to it?
Dr. Rhonda Patrick: No, exactly. That's a great question. I mean, unless they're like spraying, like you're inhaling it, like, I mean, if they're spraying the course, I run sometimes along a golf course. And there are times when they're spraying and I'm like trying to get ahead of the spraying machine thing. And I'm like, I just have to like figure out when they're spraying and not run on those days.
Mayim Bialik: Well, I think the issue also is not so much like don't live on a golf course. The issue is a larger one that the things that give us so much luxury, joy, and pleasure, like having a weed-free garden, which is something that's very important, we now know things and The Future of Food and Food Inc. are 2 wonderful documentaries that I highly recommend that discuss in particular Roundup and Monsanto. And, you know, these used to be things that were on the fringes of conversations, and people used to kind of roll their eyes and say like, that's ridiculous. You're worried about hippie things. But what we know now is that the things that give us a lot of conveniences do come with a very high price. And once that information is out there, we are so grateful to people like you for spreading this information because it's not something we can ignore. If you're living somewhere where pesticides are being sprayed, and if there are no weeds, which is a naturally occurring thing to have when there's grass, chances are there's a downside to that luxury, as it were. And these pesticides and a lot of other forever chemicals, these things are contaminating our water sources, our soil. I mean, it's ending up in the sludge that's in the conventional farming that's used, not organic, but it's actually ended up in organic farming too. But it's like everything's contaminated. We got microplastics, we got the forever chemicals, we have now this the Roundup and the pesticides. Water filters do help.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I mean, they help filter out a lot of these chemicals and, like, small, small particles and stuff. But yeah, it's a big problem. Like, how— the damage is done already. So, like, now it's like, okay, do we keep doing more damage? Can we somehow stop that damage? At what point is enough enough, right? I mean, at what point can we say, okay—
Jonathan Cohen: You sure you want to live to 115? I mean, you know, it's
Mayim Bialik: The microplastics and the forever chemicals. That's the thing that also gets me, right? I mean, it's in everything. It's in, it's in our fruits and vegetables. You think you're eating healthy and then you're like, oh, everything's coated in forever chemicals now because it's in our soil.
Jonathan Cohen: We did an episode on this and then the doctor we had on was like, oh yeah, it's in the ocean and in the rainwater. So it's in the air.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Yeah, it's in the air. It's in, I mean, it's everywhere. So you need air filter, water filter, right? Yeah. So that's the golf course.
Supporting our work
If you enjoy the fruits of
, you can participate in helping us to keep improving it. Creating a premium subscription does just that! Plus, we throw in occasional member perks and, more importantly, churn out the best possible content without concerning ourselves with the wishes of any dark overlords.
Parkinson's News
- Parkinson's disease is linked to body fat loss and a shift in how the body produces energy.
- Breathing low-oxygen air may help prevent and even reverse Parkinson's symptoms, even after substantial neurological damage has occurred.
- Different exercise training intensities have varied effects on symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
- Drinking caffeinated coffee reduces the risk of Parkinson's disease by 37 percent.
- Buty and the beast: the complex role of butyrate in Parkinson’s disease
