Doctor Sanjay Pandey highlights a new approach to reversing Parkinson’s Disease (PD). He says, “In short, our gut health not only may provide clues, but may also present a precious opportunity in the battle against PD.” Read on to know more.
VERIFIED By: Dr. Sanjay Pandey, Professor and Head, Neurology and Stroke Medicine, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad 
Written by Kinkini Gupta |Published : April 17, 2025 5:44 PM IST
World Parkinson’s Day is observed every year on 11th April with the aim to spread awareness about the neurodegenerative disorder and its symptoms, treatment, progression, repercussions. This day is also recognised globally as an important day because Parkinson’s also an indicator of an increasingly expanding field of research that’s revolutionizing our knowledge of this intricate neurological disorder by pin-pointing unconventional correlations and symptoms of the disease, including the gut-brain axis.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been studied for decades primarily by inferring from motor symptoms and brain neurodegeneration. Current scientific developments point to the importance of the gut in PD, an idea with profound implications for disease prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
Dr. Sanjay Pandey, Professor and Head, Neurology and Stroke Medicine, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad speaks more on Parkinson’s disease and the promise of healing it through digestive wellness. He says, “In short, our gut health not only may provide clues, but may also present a precious opportunity in the battle against Parkinson’s.”
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Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease has traditionally been characterized by tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia. However, patients will develop non-motor symptoms such as constipation or gastrointestinal dysfunction, before motor symptoms such as tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. Dr Viviane Labrie and co-authors published a landmark paper, which established that patients with chronic constipation were at elevated baseline risk for developing Parkinson’s disease in the future and was recognized as a red flag for the disease process. This connection was not by chance. The study presumed that pathological alpha-synuclein the protein accumulating abnormally in PD is able to appear first in the enteric nervous system of the intestine far in advance of becoming apparent in the brain.
Providing evidence in favour of this assumption, a wide-ranging study by Dr. Heiko Braak proposed the “Braak Hypothesis,” which assumes that pathogens or toxins from the environment can initiate PD pathology in the gastrointestinal tract. There, via the vagus nerve the key superhighway connecting the gut and the brain these malformed proteins may pass and ignite neurodegeneration. Interestingly, corroborating evidence from a JAMA Neurology (2016) study reported that patients who had already undergone vagotomy (surgical removal of the vagus nerve) had a significantly reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in their later years, providing clinical evidence to this hypothesis in a real-world environment.
Healing Parkinson’s from the Inside Out: The Promise of Digestive Wellness
What does this mean for caregivers and patients? Doctor Sanjay Pandey goes on to say, “In short, our gut health not only may provide clues, but may also present a precious opportunity in the battle against Parkinson’s. Early detection and treatment of symptoms involving the gut may also help with early diagnosis and minimize disease severity. In addition, researchers are experimenting to determine whether a range of interventions that would alter the gut microbiome (including diet, probiotics, and prebiotics) might be used therapeutically. For example, Johns Hopkins and the University of Helsinki have conducted clinical trials looking into the possibility of slowing neuroinflammation and symptom reduction in PD through altering the gut microbiome.”
TRENDING NOW
In studying the Parkinson’s impact, the gut-brain axis reminds one of more comprehensive approaches to neurodegenerative therapy. More education about gastrointestinal health gives patients power, and strengthens their avenues to more effective, personalized therapies. As we spread awareness and knowledge related to Parkinson’s, we must enlarge the narrative to include gut health as a key message, push for earlier screening of gastrointestinal symptoms, and keep pressing for all-embracing research that will change the way we treat this burdensome disease.
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