Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

Living Near Golf Courses Linked to Parkinson's Risk #shorts

15 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:10

In this YouTube short, Dr. Robert Whitfield discusses a 2025 large-scale epidemiological study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Krasnowski et al. The study examined the risk of Parkinson's disease among residents living near golf courses, not just golfers themselves. After adjusting for individual demographics and neighborhood characteristics, the researchers found that people residing within one mile of a golf course had a 126% higher odds of developing Parkinson's disease compared to those living more than six miles away. Dr. Whitfield emphasizes the magnitude of this association and suggests that chemical exposures—potentially from pesticide or fertilizer runoff contaminating local water supplies—could be a plausible environmental mechanism linking proximity to golf courses with increased neurodegenerative risk.

Chapters

Last year in 2025, a very large study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it was, uh, by a group, Krasnowski and team. And they didn't just look at golfers, they looked at populations living near golf courses. And the findings were pretty staggering. After adjusting for patient demographics, and neighborhood characteristics, living within 1 mile of a golf course was associated with 126% increased odds of developing Parkinson's disease compared with individuals living more than 6 miles away from a golf course. Now, let that sink in. 126% increased odds in severe neurodegenerative disease. And that's linked directly to basically where you're living in proximity to the golf course, which comes from potential interaction from the chemicals and as it potentially, potentially gets into the water supply.