A new study finds that compared to healthy controls, people with Parkinson's disease appear to have distinctly different gut bacteria. They have hardly any bacteria from one family and the amount present from another family seems to increase with disease severity.

"Our most important observation was that patients with Parkinson's have much less bacteria from the Prevotellaceae family; unlike the control group, practically no one in the patient group had a large quantity of bacteria from this family." This bacterium aids in the creation of the vitamins thiamine and folate and the maintenance of an intestinal barrier protecting against environmental toxins. This finding may therefore have implications not only for diagnosis but also for dietary adjustments or vitamin supplementation for management of PD in the future. In people with Parkinson’s with more severe postural instability and gait difficulty, as opposed to tremor, the bacterium Enterobacteria was present at higher levels. The reasons for this association were not clear.

Funds from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and the Finnish Parkinson Foundation helped finance the study.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286912.php

https://www.michaeljfox.org/foundati...acteria-levels