Mice bred to develop Parkinson’s were put in cages that were either sterile or non-sterile. The mice in the germ-free cages manifested less motor degeneration, and their brains had reduced tangling of the protein a-synuclein. They had “almost normal performance” in motor tasks. The researchers injected gut bacteria from human Parkinson’s patients into these mice, and they deteriorated quickly. This effect did not occur with bacteria taken from healthy humans.

The mice in the normal, non-sterile cages developed the expected symptoms of Parkinson’s. When treated with antibiotics, their symptoms were reduced, suggesting effectiveness in a microbial approach to the disease.

Gut bacteria taken from healthy people didn’t have the same effect.

Eoin Treacy's view

There are more nerve endings in your gut than your brain so in one sense you gut is smarter than you think. That makes intuitive sense considering the work that goes into breaking down everything we put into our mouths into useable fuel and waste. The microbiome living in each of our gut’s has an inordinate effect on both health and mood. With advances in genetics it represents a rapidly evolving field of study we are sure to hear more about in 2017. The more I read about the subject the better my diet has become, you really are what you eat.