They say that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” But this is definitely not true of the vagus nerve, which wanders from the stomach to the brain, passing through the heart, esophagus and lungs along the way.

A new study offers fresh support for an intriguing theory about the vagus nerve’s role in Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that causes tremors, gait difficulties and sometimes dementia in roughly 1 million Americans and as many as 10 million people worldwide.

LA Times: Does Parkinson’s disease begin in the gut? New research suggests it does