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Research Shows Connection Between Parkinson’s And Appendectomies

Recent studies have found that the appendix could be a potential source for the start of Parkinson’s disease, while scientists previously believed it began in the brain.

A Wednesday report claimed that there is a lower risk of getting Parkinson’s decades after people have had their appendix removed.

The reasoning is due to surgically removed appendix tissue becoming a storage space for abnormal protein that, if it makes its way to the brain, becomes the trademark of the tremor-inducing brain disease.


Regardless of age or whether or not people have Parkinson’s, a great deal of people may host the potentially-threatening protein within their appendix, according to studies published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. 

“We’re not saying to go out and get an appendectomy,” said Viviane Labrie of Michigan’s Van Andel Research Institute. Labrie is a neuroscientist and geneticist who led the team that researched the topic.

There are plenty of people that still develop Parkinson’s with no appendix and others that don’t get sick despite carrying the protein.

It has been known for some time by doctors and patients that there is a connection between the disease and the gastrointestinal tract as GI tract issues are common years before patients experience warning signs of Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s Foundation chief scientific officer James Beck, who also wasn’t involved in the study, agreed that “there’s a lot of tantalizing potential connections, “what we don’t know is what starts it.”

The report that was shared on Wednesday proved that information and has sparked an effort to learn more about the connection.