PARKINSON鈥橲 disease may affect the bowel as well as the brain. Robert Abbott
of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville has found
that constipation, common in those with Parkinson鈥檚 disease, can pre-date other
symptoms by many years.
His team looked at data from a long-term study of 6790 men in Hawaii. The
researchers found that men who were constipated鈥攄efined as having less
than one bowel movement a day鈥攚ere 2.7 times as likely to develop
Parkinson鈥檚 as men with an average of one bowel movement a day, regardless of
dietary and environmental factors (Neurology, vol 57, p 456).
鈥淥ur data suggest that the pathology in Parkinson鈥檚 disease does not just
involve the brain but could also involve other systems,鈥� says Abbott. But he
points out that constipation does not itself make someone more likely to get
笔补谤办颈苍蝉辞苍鈥檚.
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