Sometimes researchers find the weirdest and most unlikely connections that seemingly have nothing to with each other.
One such connection, which was published in the journal Gastroenterology, was recently made with Parkinson’s and what would seem like a body part that had zero connection to the first.
Researchers analyzed medical records of 62 million people who had had appendectomies.
They discovered people that had undergone this everyday surgery to remove their appendix were 3.9 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.
However, there are also contradictory reports.
Another study published in Science Translational Medicine analyzed health information of 1,698,000 people, finding that appendectomies reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s later on in life by 19.3 percent.
A 2015 study in the Journal Movement Disorders confirms this. However, their subject pool was much smaller with only 295 participants. They claim that those who had had appendectomies earlier in life tended to develop Parkinson’s later than those who still had their appendixes.
But let’s forget about the contradicting studies for a moment. Why on earth would two such disparate conditions be related?
One reason related to a protein called alpha-synuclein.
Alpha-synuclein can mutate, causing the protein to cause cell death.
The two primary places where alpha-synuclein occurs in your body are in your brain and gut.
Your appendix is part of your gut that hosts immune cells that are meant to prevent microbes from coming into your body from the environment.
The most common current theory is that environmental microbes cause the mutation of the alpha-synuclein proteins in your body.
At this point, the cause and effect between Parkinson’s and appendectomies are purely speculation.