How is appendix and Parkinson’s disease related?
The Study revealed a clear evidence about how Parkinson’s disease linked to appendix, making the appendix no more a vestigial organ in our body.
An researched based analysis of the health records on more than 62 million people conducted in United States
has found a link between the removal of the appendix and raised risk of developing the Parkinson’s disease.
How is appendix and Parkinson’s disease related?
Another study done in ,2016 Movement Disorders study with more than 10 years follow up has shown in 1.5 million people in the Denmark ,found that people who had undergone the appendectomy had a slightly higher risk of developing the Parkinson’s disease in the future.
Another study done in 2018 Science Translational Medicine over 1.6 million people in Sweden showed the similar results.
Alpha-synuclein, plays important role:
Parkinson’s is the disease that slowly destroys the cells in a part of the brain that controls the movements of our body.
These symptoms gradually get worse over time. This disease results from the loss of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain which controls the movement.
The symptoms of this disease include various signs and symptoms like movement rigidity, balance difficulties. slowness, tremors.
As such, there is no complete cure for this disease and all medical management is pure conservative. A recent advance has come into light after discovery of the gene therapy for the Parkinsonism in late decades, which is yet to come in wide use in the general population along with deep brain stimulation where two deep brain stimulation electrodes with target subtropical nucleus for treatment of Parkinson’s Disease .
How is Parkinson’s disease linked to appendix?
The scientists have found the alpha-synuclein:
which is a protein that has featured in the development of the Parkinson’s disease forms toxic clumps called as Lewy bodies in the people affected with Parkinsonism
The scientists found the same protein has been found in clumps in the digestive tract of the early stages of the Parkinsonism disease.
A research team led by Dr. Viviane Labrie at the Van Andel Research Institute did research to explore whether the digestive tract is involved in triggering Parkinson’s disease so they focused on the appendix. but the research results are quite different from the rest showing the decrease in the chances of the development of the Parkinsonism in the people who have underwent the surgery.
Despite of its reputation of being called as an useless organ, the appendix is also an immune tissue in the gut ,
which is involved in the body’s defense mechanism against bacteria and helps regulate bacteria in the gut.
Appendix and Parkinson’s disease related
In other research the scientists found that, out of more than 488,000 patients who had underwent their appendixes removed,about 4,470 (0.9%) developed Parkinson’s disease.Of the remaining people of 61.7 million patients who didn’t have appendectomies, only about 177,000 (0.3%) developed the disease latter.
Parkinson’s disease is said to have a rough 20 year “prodromal period”,
Before these Parkinsonism symptoms appear, During this long time, other less-obvious symptoms may appear in mean time.
Symptoms like during the prodromal period, people with Parkinson’s may experience severe constipation or other digestive problems.
Many Recent findings of various investigations have suggested that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease is about three-fold higher for population who undergone appendectomies than those who did not.
CONCLUSION:
The appendix was sure said to be no more vestigial any longer.
as there was clear relationship between the appendix and the Parkinson’s disease .
The researches are still in process to know exactly where the pathology is related in development of the Parkinsonism in the patients who have undergone the surgery.
The science behind this recent research is quite interesting .
It can guide our medical community to the better understand the Parkinson’s disease.
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