In a paper published yesterday, Sampson et al. write [1]:

"Our findings establish that the microbiota are required for the hallmark motor and GI dysfunction in a mouse model of PD, via postnatal gut-brain signaling by microbial molecules that impact neuroinflammation and αSyn aggregation. Coupled with emerging research that has linked gut bacteria to disorders such as anxiety, depression, and autism, we propose the provocative hypothesis that certain neurologic conditions that have classically been studied as disorders of the brain may also have etiologies in the gut."

They raise the possibility that correcting dysbiosis may slow the progression of PD.

It seems to me that a sensible reaction of PwP to these findings is to measure the impact of live fermented foods on their PD symptoms.

Reference

[1] "Gut Microbiota Regulate Motor Deficits and Neuroinflammation in a Model of Parkinson’s Disease"
Sampson et al.
Cell, Dec 2016
http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31590-2

John

Parkinson's disease may start in the gut and travel to the brain | New Scientist

haven't looked at the publications but off the top of my head, if pd starts in the gut i as a layman would expect clusters of pd by geography, socioeconomic groups, even families since there would be a lot of factors affecting gut microbia in common and then how does this fit into pd manifesting itself in adults and not children? is this something where we just lose the capability to repair the damage as we age?

More evidence of gut brain connection for PD
Does Parkinson's start in the gut? Study reinforces gut-brain link

I assume you all realize that you are posting links to the same research. John's link is to the actual published study report.

Let's look at some of the points raised by soccertese.

If the environment is part of the etiology of Parkinson's, one would expect people who shared the same environment as a PwP to have an increased chance of developing the disease. Blood relatives will share in part the same environment, but they will also partially share the same genetics, which will cloud the environmental effect. However, in large part, spouses of PwP will be free of this, so the increase in their risk of developing PD gives a more pure measure of the environmental effect. A study [1] based on data from Iceland shows risk ratios for relatives of all PwP/ late onset PwP:
siblings(6.3/6.7),
off-spring (3.0/3.3),
nephews and nieces (2.4/2.7),
first cousins (1.4/1.3),
spouses (1.9/1.1).

In a wider context, you would expect geographical variations in the prevalence of PD. Willis et al. demonstrate this at the US county scale [2].

I would strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in PD look at the maps in their paper.

References:

[1] "FAMILIAL AGGREGATION OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE IN ICELAND"
Sigurlaug Sveinbjorndottir et al.
NEMJ 2000
MMS: Error

[2] "Geographic and Ethnic Variation in Parkinson Disease: A Population-Based Study of US Medicare Beneficiaries"
Allison Wright Willis,a,* Bradley A. Evanoff,b Min Lian,b Susan R. Criswell,a and Brad A. Racette
Neuroepidemiology, 2010, Apr
Geographic and Ethnic Variation in Parkinson Disease: A Population-Based Study of US Medicare Beneficiaries

John

Will be interesting to see if more sophisticated probiotics can be developed for treatment.

Anymore IMHO everything ....everything...conspires to bring us to our experience of health. A useful metaphor might be when I pull weeds from the garden they just grow back ever in large numbers - the concept of root cause may be flawed in its linear context....just sayin...