made it up,

Thank you for your kind words.

I'm sorry that I slipped into jargon. ENS is the enteric nervous system. It basically controls the gastrointestinal tract. It has been called a second brain.

According to Wikipedia [1]:

"The enteric nervous system in humans consists of some 500 million neurons ... one two-hundredth of the number of neurons in the brain, five times as many as the one hundred million neurons in the human spinal cord ... The enteric nervous system is embedded in the lining of the gastrointestinal system, beginning in the esophagus and extending down to the ****."

[The **** above has been generated automatically to replace the name of a part of the body. Perhaps some people think that some people may find it offensive!]

The gut contains "about 50% of the body's dopamine".

The ENS is protected in a way similar to how the BBB (blood brain barrier) protects the brain.

The higher accessibility of the ENS compared to the brain may make it a better location for surgical intervention. An ENS equivalent of DBS, for instance?

It seems to me that because we can't see the non-motor symptoms of PD we ignore them. PwP, and medics, and researchers need to focus more on the non-motor symptoms of PD.

Reference:

[1] Enteric nervous system - Wikipedia

John