Parkinson's: A Microbial Etiology?
Articles published in the last several months raise the question whether microbes found in the gut are responsible for Parkinson's disease. In September researchers published an article titled "The Second Brain and Parkinson's disease" in which they reviewed and elaborated on emerging evidence that the enteric nervous system and the microbes that in part constitute it may, be responsible for precipitating Parkinson's disease. Another group published "Autoimmune Disease and risk for Parkinson disease" in which they failed to find support for the hypothesis that Parkinson's is an autoimmune disorder. Most recently in Medical Hypotheses Mark Lyte's "The Microbial Organ in the Gut as a Driver of Homeostatsis and Disease" speculates that the microbes living in our guts along with the enteric nervous system form a sort of organism within an organism that when disrupted can lead to diseases such as Parkinson's. For more on this unfolding understanding of the role of these microorganisms in our lives see "They Are What You Eat".
