One functional medicine saying that will never grow old or be overused is the reality that everything is somehow connected inside us. For this reason, we must always keep in mind a wholistic picture of the person we are treating for any given illness. While conventional medicine would agree with this as they try to avoid therapy side effects which outweigh the benefits, functional medicine applies this at a broader and deeper level. In the case of Parkinson’s Disease, we recognize that a gut-brain axis exists and plays a role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinsons. This article in focus for today adds to this basic understanding by tying in the production of B vitamins by gut bacteria to Parkinson’s disease mechanisms through gut permeability.
Parkinson’s disease may affect 1 to 2 % of those individuals over the age of 55 years. The degeneration of specific nerve cells in their brains leads to a variety of symptoms. While a tremor is the sine quo non of this debilitating disease, they also have balance problems, slowing of movements, stiffness, and shaking. While medications can lessen the symptoms, no cure has been found and the disease tends to progress to disability over time. Understanding how it begins so we can intervene at an earlier stage could help millions.
Japanese researchers knew that other prior discoveries linked the gut and its bacteria with Parkinson’s disease. They decided to analyze the genes of bacteria in Parkinson’s disease patients looking for patterns that might reveal mechanistic answers. These gut bacteria produce a large number of chemicals for us including short chain fatty acids (SCFA), polyamines, and various vitamins.
For those patients with the disease, they found a lower level of genes for making vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and B7 (biotin). These vitamins are important for a large number of metabolic processes including the production of SCFA’s and polyamines. Given that these two chemicals help maintain the integrity of the intestinal barrier, these changes could increase the entrance of toxins from the gut into the blood stream and then the brains of these patients. Other studies have demonstrated that Parkinson’s disease patients have high intestinal permeability.
While much more research needs to be done, these links between gut bacteria, vitamin levels, intestinal metabolites, intestinal permeability, and Parkinson’s disease are intriguing. As we help a handful of Parkinson’s sufferers in our clinic overcome their disease, we will look at these vitamins as well as their gut health to make sure we are moving them towards a healthier more abundant life as fast as possible.
Original Article:
Hiroshi Nishiwaki, Jun Ueyama, Mikako Ito, Tomonari Hamaguchi, Keiichi Takimoto, Tetsuya Maeda, Kenichi Kashihara, Yoshio Tsuboi, Hiroshi Mori, Ken Kurokawa, Masahisa Katsuno, Masaaki Hirayama, Kinji Ohno. Meta-analysis of shotgun sequencing of gut microbiota in Parkinson’s disease. npj Parkinson’s Disease, 2024; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00724-z
Thanks to Science Daily:
Nagoya University. “Treating the gut-brain connection with B vitamins to treat Parkinson’s Disease.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 June 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240617173639.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.