By Dr. Mercola | Mercola.com | Jun. 24, 2010

Diseases of the nervous system and the brain now occur more frequently than cancer. According to Professor Gérard Said, newly elected president of the European Neurological Society (ENS), they represent a burden of 386 billion euros a year on European economies.

Around 50 million people in the EU suffer one or more neurological diseases.  The incidence is on the rise, with the European Brain Council estimating a 20 percent increase in these diseases in coming years. The number of patients suffering dementia or Parkinson's disease is expected to double during this period.

According to Medical News Today:

“Migraine is high on the list of the most common neurological diseases ... around 41 million Europeans suffer from these stressful chronic headaches. Around 4.8 million people in the EU area suffer from some form of dementia, around 2.6 million from epilepsy, 1.2 million from Parkinson's disease, and around a million people a year suffer stroke.”