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Neurology 2002;58:956-959
© 2002 American Academy of Neurology
Medical Hypothesis

Cycad neurotoxins, consumption of flying foxes, and ALS-PDC disease in Guam

Paul Alan Cox, PhD and Oliver W. Sacks, MD

From the Institute for Ethnobotany (Dr. Cox), National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kalaheo, HI; and Department of Neurology (Dr. Sacks), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Paul Alan Cox, Institute for Ethnobotany, National Tropical Botanical Garden, 3530 Papalina Road, Kalaheo, Kauai, HI 96741.

The Chamorro people of Guam have been afflicted with a complex of neurodegenerative diseases (now known as ALS-PDC) with similarities to ALS, AD, and PD at a far higher rate than other populations throughout the world. Chamorro consumption of flying foxes may have generated sufficiently high cumulative doses of plant neurotoxins to result in ALS-PDC neuropathologies, since the flying foxes forage on neurotoxic cycad seeds.




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Correspondence:

Read all Correspondence

Cycad neurotoxins, consumption of flying foxes, and ALS-PDC disease in Guam
Kwang-Ming Chen, et al.
Neurology Online, 27 Jun 2002 [Full text]
Reply to Letter to the Editor
Paul Alan Cox, et al.
Neurology Online, 27 Jun 2002 [Full text]