Forget what you think you know about Parkinson’s …

There seems to be a trend at the moment of researchers discovering that chronic disease starts in the gut.

A theory was proposed in 2003 that was that Parkinson’s which is seen as a brain disease originates in the gut.  Now researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have confirmed that Parkinson’s migrates from the gut.

Another important discovery is that the hearts of people with Parkinson’s can also be affected.  In fact, the protein alpha-synuclein starts in the gut, then damages the heart before moving on to the brain.  They also discovered that it’s in the heart where the damage to the nervous system begins.

Researchers now say that a build-up of the protein alpha-synuclein in the gut can be detected up to 20 years before the disease manifests.  Researcher Per Broghammer says that understanding where Parkinson’s originates is the first step towards preventing the disease and developing an effective treatment.

Reference

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00401-019-02040-w

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