Growing Evidence Suggests a Trigger For Parkinson’s Disease Could Be A Common Gut Bug
There’s an increasing link between the debilitating neurological illness and the microbes that live in our intestines.
BY KNOWABLE MAGAZINE AND DAVID LEVIN, originally published at Knowable Magazine
It can start small: a peculiar numbness, a subtle facial tic, an inexplicably stiff muscle. But then time goes by — and eventually, the tremors set in.
Roughly a million people in the United States (and roughly 10 million people worldwide) live with Parkinson’s disease, a potent neurological disorder that progressively kills neurons in the brain. As it does so, it can trigger a host of crippling symptoms, from violent tremors to excruciating muscle cramps, terrifying nightmares, and constant brain fog. While medical treatments can alleviate some of these effects, researchers still don’t know exactly what causes the disease to occur in the first place.
