People whose painkiller of choice is ibuprofen may be at a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease than those who don't take the drug, new research suggests.

A study looking at more than 136,000 Americans found that the more ibuprofen tablets they took every week, the less of a chance they had of getting the debilitating disorder, which causes the degeneration of brain cells that control motor skills.

The same effect observed with ibuprofen, sold under the brand name Advil or Motrin in the U.S., rift gold didn't manifest itself with other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin (Bufferin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), and naproxen (Aleve), according to the findings.

Previous research has shown that regularly taking any NSAID seems to slow or stop the onset of Parkinson's, according to Dr. Michael Pourfar, the director of the division of movement disorders at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y.

"What is interesting about this particular study is that the benefit appeared limited to ibuprofen and was not apparent with other NSAIDs," Pourfar said in an e-mail to AOL Health. RIFT Platinum "This raises the question as to whether any potential benefit relates to ibuprofen's anti-inflammatory activity or another mechanism of action."

But that doesn't mean that ibuprofen should be taken to stave off Parkinson's.

"It is important to note that this finding, while intriguing, not does indicate that ibuprofen protects individuals from getting Parkinson's," Pourfar said. "It also does not mean that taking ibuprofen once one has developed Parkinson's will have any impact on disease progression."

Lead researcher Dr. Xiang Gao of Harvard Medical School issued a similar warning about the limitations of his observational study. Gao said it does not prove a causal link between taking ibuprofen and avoiding Parkinson's, which typically crops up later in life and causes trembling and other movement problems that get progressively worse over time.

"It's too early to recommend use of ibuprofen to prevent or treat Parkinson's disease," Gao told Reuters Health in an e-mail. RIFT Platinum But, he added, his findings pave the way for clinical, randomized trials on whether Advil or Motrin can delay development of the disease.

The research, published online March 2 in Neurology, looked at questionnaires given to participants beginning in 1998 and 2000 about their use of over-the-counter painkillers. During the subsequent six years, about two in 1,000 of those studied were diagnosed with Parkinson's, Reuters said.

Gao and his colleagues learned that participants who took ibuprofen at least two times a week had a 38 percent lower risk of developing the illness than those who didn't take the drug. rift gold They accounted for other possible contributing factors like alcohol use, smoking, age and weight.

They also found that the chance of Parkinson's seemed to drop further the more of the pills they took. Rift Gold Subjects who reported taking six or more ibuprofen tablets a week had the lowest odds of getting Parkinson's compared with those who didn't take any of the painkillers at all.

Only 10 of the participants who got the disease were taking six or more ibuprofen tablets a week; just 13 were taking between one and five.

"One possible explanation is that ibuprofen does protect against Parkinson's disease," Dr. James H. Bower, RIFT Platinum a Mayo Clinic neurologist who wrote an accompanying editorial, told Reuters. "That's what everyone would hope -- that would be very exciting. But we're not there yet."

But frequent ibuprofen use is not without its own problems. The drug can cause stomach upset and bleeding, as well as kidney damage.

The Harvard researchers theorize that the link may exist because ibuprofen does something other NSAIDs don't: work on a cell receptor called PPAR-gamma, rift gold which some animal studies suggest may be linked to Parkinson's.

About a million people in the U.S. suffer from Parkinson's, but the disease and its causes have remained largely a mystery.

The condition involves the slow deterioration of cells that produce dopamine in the brain and comes with life-altering symptoms including balance and movement difficulty, tremors and acute stiffness.

The actor Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's and has helped raise awareness about and funding for the disease through a foundation he established.

Scientists believe that Parkinson's may have genetic and environmental roots. RIFT Platinum Prior studies have linked risk of the disease to pesticides and other toxins.