From The Telegraph:
People who have their appendix removed are three times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, new research indicates. The largest ever study of the relationship between the gut and the debilitating nervous system disorder involved the analysis of more than 62 million patients records.
Researchers found that patients who had their appendix removed were more likely to develop Parkinson's than those whose appendix remained in place.
Study lead author Dr Mohammed Sheriff, a physician at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Centre in the US, said: "Recent research into the cause of Parkinson's has centered around alpha synuclein, a protein found in the gastrointestinal tract early in the onset of Parkinson's.
