How microbes influence our brain health
By 
Anthony King2024-03-11T13:54:00
Our gut microbiome has been linked to conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Anthony King reports on the connections
Results from patients and animal models implicate gut microbes in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Most Parkinson’s patients have a distinctive microbial signature in their gut. Put this microbiome into a Parkinson’s-like mouse and its condition deteriorates. Knock out the microbiome of Alzheimer’s or multiple sclerosis (MS) mice and their disease gets better: That suggests the microbiome is participating in the disease.
Such investigations can help us treat patients with Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. Perhaps it’s not so surprising when the gut is home to 100 trillion bacteria, according to estimates, around 10 times the number of cells in the human body and they have evolved with us.