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I have a twin brother that has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s am I at risk? Thanks please answer apparently I’m not smart enough to use this site please advise how to proceed

December 13, 2019
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A MyParkinsonsTeam Member

This is a question to be discussed with your medical team, not thrown out to non-medical folks.

December 17, 2019
A MyParkinsonsTeam Member

Here’s a video of the identical twins dated 2018. Still after 9 years, only one twin has PD. https://vimeo.com/265458587

December 14, 2019
A MyParkinsonsTeam Member

@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member,
Not necessarily. Parkinson’s has been known to be genetic in some families, but not all families. I know a few families had two or more direct family members who had PD but many families only one will ever have PD. My thoughts and from what I’ve read is that PD maybe more environmental causative factors. No one knows for sure though whether PD is genetic or environmental. I’m not sure what the risk factors are for twins. If you google “Parkinson’s and Twins” it will return many results of info and studies, but many of those reports, the publish dates are old, some way outdated. I did find an 2016 article on identical twins and a story of identical twin brothers. For these twins, only one twin has PD. https://scienceofparkinsons.com/2016/07/27/iden...
Are you an identical twin?
This article says early onset of PD is likely to occur in identical twins, but the article is dated 2007. Don’t know if a more recent study has been done. https://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonline/Pages...
It might be best to search or contact the Parkinsons Foundation or the MJ Fox Foundation and see if they have any more recent info or research on twins and PD.
Try to connect with others on this PD community site who are twins or has twins in their family of whom one or both have PD.

December 14, 2019

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