Breathing low-oxygen air may help prevent and even reverse Parkinson's symptoms, even after substantial neurological damage has occurred. Digest
Anecdotal reports from Parkinson's disease patients suggest that time spent at high altitudes, where oxygen is naturally lower, may bring unexpected relief from symptoms. Intrigued by this possibility, researchers designed an experiment to investigate the biological mechanisms that might explain it.
The researchers began by injecting mice with preformed clumps of α-synuclein, a protein that misfolds, accumulates, and damages brain cells in Parkinson's disease. The animals were then housed in either normal air (21% oxygen) or reduced oxygen (11%).
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Continuous low-oxygen exposure produced notable benefits:
Continuous low-oxygen exposure preserved neurons and prevented movement problems, even though harmful protein clumps still accumulated in the brain.
Starting low-oxygen treatment six weeks after symptom onset reversed existing movement and anxiety problems and halted further nerve cell loss. However, neuronal cells already lost were not restored, and protein clumps remained in the brain.
In Parkinson's, misfolded proteins damage mitochondria, causing inefficient oxygen use and harmful oxygen buildup (hyperoxia), which leads to oxidative stress. Breathing low-oxygen air may reduce this excess. Additionally, low oxygen can activate protective genes via hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), triggering stress resistance and survival pathways, and boost lactate metabolism, helping cells manage energy and reduce stress.
Taken together, the results highlight low-oxygen exposure as a potentially powerful strategy to slow or reverse disease processes in Parkinson's. However, these findings come only from animal models. Whether carefully controlled oxygen reduction is safe or effective in humans remains unknown and requires further study. Learn more about Parkinson's disease in episode #60 featuring Dr. Giselle Petzinger.