United States: A new study connects gut health to a common neuro disease for the first time.
The scientists noted that the patients who received damage to the upper lining of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are 76 percent more likely to get Parkinson’s disease; the research has been carried out by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston.
The results of the research were printed in JAMA Network Open on September 5.
More about the finding
The study appears in the journal Gastroenterology and analyzed data from 9,350 patients, of an average age of 52, who underwent upper endoscopy, which is an examination of the end of the gullet or swallowing tube, stomach, and first part of the small bowel at the Mass General Brigham health system from 2000-2005.
The experts found that those who had “mucosal damage” were found to have a higher risk.
14.2 years after, on average, after the damage was detected, Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed, according to the study mentioned above.
According to the lead study author Trisha Pasricha, MD, a gastroenterologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, “When asked, many of my patients with Parkinson’s disease will say, ‘Come to think of it, yeah, I started to get bad constipation or nausea, years before anyone diagnosed me with Parkinson’s.'”
“We now know that gut symptoms like these herald a future diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease,” she added.
What more are the experts stating?
A board-certified neurologist not involved in the study was Dr Earnest Lee Murray, who works at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee; he agreed that gastrointestinal dysfunction is indeed very manifest in Parkinson’s.
Murray said, “Motor symptoms, such as stiffness, tremors, and difficulty walking, are the stereotypical features of Parkinson’s.”
Moreover, “However, there are several non-motor symptoms that are often seen, the most common being gastrointestinal dysfunction, especially constipation and difficulty swallowing,” added Murray.
The gastrointestinal symptoms can manifest itself even seven years before the onset of the motor symptoms, the neurologist said.
“Given the prominence of early gastrointestinal issues in Parkinson’s, there has been a theory suggesting that the pathology that causes Parkinson’s can originate in the GI tract and travel to the brain via the vagus nerve,” as noted by Murray, aol.com reported.
According to Pasricha, “This study gives additional evidence to the ‘gut-first’ theory,” and there are several factors that could damage the mucosal lining.
She added, “Those include taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen, drinking alcohol, stress or bacteria like H. pylori.”
“Our study only examined people whose stomach symptoms were so severe that they sought an upper endoscopy to investigate the etiology, but we all experience small amounts of damage to our gut lining throughout our lives for various reasons,” she continued.