Parkinson ’ s Risk Factors continued
Having a Family Member with Parkinson ’ s
I ’ m living with Parkinson ’ s and my family ’ s living with it too .
3 %
Section 02 — Understanding and Living with Risk Factors
Parkinson ’ s Risk Factors continued
03
Having a Family Member with Parkinson ’ s
Your blood relative lives or lived with Parkinson ’ s
I ’ m living with Parkinson ’ s and my family ’ s living with it too .
Michael J . Fox
If you have a family member with PD , your risk of disease is generally about
3 %
What to know :
If you have a family member with Parkinson ’ s , you know that PD impacts not only the person living with it but also their loved ones . These effects vary from family to family and can change over time , as both Parkinson ’ s and life change . Michael J . Fox has said , “ I ’ m living with Parkinson ’ s and my family ’ s living with it too .” How Parkinson ’ s shows up in your life depends on many things , including your relationship to the person with PD , their symptoms , and their support systems . Some children grow up never knowing their parent without Parkinson ’ s . Others are adults , with families of their own , when a parent or sibling is diagnosed . Immediate questions often center on how the disease might affect your loved one and their future and how you can best support them . But at some point , most family members also wonder if they could get the disease or pass it to their children .
Having a parent , sibling or child — a first-degree family member — with Parkinson ’ s does raise your risk of disease . So does having multiple family members with the disease . But neither guarantees Parkinson ’ s . Even with a family history , the overall chance of getting PD is still somewhat low . Estimates of risk vary based on where and how studies are done and whether you have a Parkinson ’ s gene change .
If you have a family member with PD , your risk of disease is generally about three percent , or 3 people out of 100 . By comparison , the risk in the general population , for people without a family history of Parkinson ’ s , is about one percent .
Most people with PD do not have a family history . But when Parkinson ’ s does run in families , it could be because of shared environmental factors and / or genetics . Families typically share the same living and working spaces , which can include exposures that increase risk for PD , such as air pollution or pesticides .
They also share genes . Genes are inherited bits of information that direct what we look like , whether we ’ re at risk for disease , and other aspects of health . Some families have gene changes that increase PD risk . Parents can — but don ’ t always — pass these to their children .
Read more on page 33 .
A single gene change explains Parkinson ’ s in only about 10 percent of people . In most people , multiple gene changes , along with aging and environmental factors , bring on the disease .
36 The Michael J . Fox Foundation for Parkinson ’ s Research