Gut health is crucial to the health of the human body. I cannot emphasize this enough!
A California Institute of Technology (Caltech) study has found that Parkinson’s disease may be triggered by gut microbes. The study points to probiotics as a potential therapy for the disease.
This is an example. The article below is posted and quoted here for educational purposes:
Gut Microbiota Regulate Motor Deficits and Neuroinflammation in a Model of Parkinson’s Disease
Timothy R. Sampson
Present address: Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
Highlights
•Gut microbes promote α-synuclein-mediated motor deficits and brain pathology
•Depletion of gut bacteria reduces microglia activation
•SCFAs modulate microglia and enhance PD pathophysiology
•Human gut microbiota from PD patients induce enhanced motor dysfunction in mice
Summary
The intestinal microbiota influence neurodevelopment, modulate behavior, and contribute to neurological disorders. However, a functional link between gut bacteria and neurodegenerative diseases remains unexplored. Synucleinopathies are characterized by aggregation of the protein α-synuclein (αSyn), often resulting in motor dysfunction as exemplified by Parkinson’s disease (PD). Using mice that overexpress αSyn, we report herein that gut microbiota are required for motor deficits, microglia activation, and αSyn pathology. Antibiotic treatment ameliorates, while microbial re-colonization promotes, pathophysiology in adult animals, suggesting that postnatal signaling between the gut and the brain modulates disease. Indeed, oral administration of specific microbial metabolites to germ-free mice promotes neuroinflammation and motor symptoms. Remarkably, colonization of αSyn-overexpressing mice with microbiota from PD-affected patients enhances physical impairments compared to microbiota transplants from healthy human donors. These findings reveal that gut bacteria regulate movement disorders in mice and suggest that alterations in the human microbiome represent a risk factor for PD.
Another study, which used milk fermented with the probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei to treat constipation as a secondary symptom of the condition, has shown efficacy in addressing constipation, resulted in improvements to stool consistency and bowel habits in Parkinson’s patients.
Sources:
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.11.018
http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(16)31590-2?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867416315902%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Ingredients/Probiotics-and-prebiotics/Does-Parkinson-s-start-in-the-gut-Study-reinforces-gut-brain-link
