Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health
Parkinson’s disease is a common neuro-degenerative disease. A link between Parkinson’s and abnormal gut has been proposed indicating that the disease actually spreads from the gut to the brain. This is especially so since Lewy bodies seen in brain of Parkinsons patients are also seen in the gut.
Gut has its own brain also known as “Little brain” or enteric nervous system (ENS) as opposed to our big brain in our head and they are both connected and talking to each other all the time. In fact, these changes in the intestine including Lewy bodies may be seen in the gut long before the brain is affected by Parkinsons's.
It is thus not surprising that patients seem to suffer GI problems more frequently like constipation.
Dr. Unger and colleagues from the Saarland University in Homburg, Germany that alternations in the intestinal bacterial patterns and short chain fatty acids in stool (products of bacterial fermentation in the gut) are part of the pathogenic mechanisms causing and sustaining the Parkinson’s disease.
Study:
- Subjects 34 patients with Parkinson’s and 34 healthy controls
- Analysis included short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and bacterial pattern in the stool
Results:
Short chain fatty acids or foods for colon were lower in Parkinson;s patients as compared to healthy controls
The pattern of gut bacteria was also abnormal (dysbiosis) in Parkinsons patients. For example, Bacteroidetes and Prevotellaceae were lower in patients while levels of Enterobacteriaceae were higher in patients.
Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health
Implications:
Short chain fatty acids provide nourishment to the large intestine. The reduced amount of SCFAs may produce changes in the “Little Brain” of the gut and cause GI symptoms. Likewise, they may make the gut hyperpermeable or “leaky gut” thus allowing noxious substances or toxins to enter the body and cause ill-health.
Studies by Dr. Scheperjans and colleagues from the Helsinki University Central Hospital, University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland who demonstrated that The relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae bacteria is associated with higher severity of postural instability and gait/walking problems in patients.
These results corroborate the review from Anderson and colleagues who state that “Increased gut permeability (leaky gut) and alterations in gut microbiota are now widely accepted as relevant” to the cause, sustaining and an attractive therapeutic target for neuro-psychiatric illnesses like Parkinson's disease.
Animal models of Parkinson's also show evidence of leaky gut.
Dr. Minnocha's Comments
There is bidirectional interaction and communication between our brain as well as the intestinal brain or ENS that maintains good health and abnormalities can contribute to sickness.
Abnormal unhealthy pattern of gut bacteria or dysbiosis cause excessive stimulation of the intestinal immune system as well as leaky gut, which in turn results in spread of pro-inflammation chemicals throughout the body and in to the brain. Abnormal bacteria also stimulate the nerve cells in the intestinal brain.
Abnormal bacteria result in production of abnormal unhealthy bacterial neuro-biochemicals and toxins which promote inflammation and toxicity causing nerve cell degeneration leading to PD.
All these processes result in abnormal biochemicals that may cause the disease in a retrograde fashion from the gut to the brain, or from nerve cells to adjacent nerve cells spread.
By the way, the same mechanisms may spread Parkinson's from the nose to the brain. Gut is probably more important since it has a large surface area and is exposed to numerous types of bacteria, drugs and toxins all the time.
Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health
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