This recent “Washington Post” article is about the “gut-first” hypothesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) — the idea that a high percentage of PD cases start in the gut and that abnormal protein spreads from the gut to the brain. Evidence is that constipation can begin more than a decade before motor symptoms of PD. And abnormal proteins can be found almost the whole length of the digestive tract.
Excerpts from this article: Regularly “drinking coffee and tea is correlated with a reduced risk of developing [PD]. … Frequent consumption of dairy products has been associated with greater risk, particularly in men. And higher fiber intake has been associated with a lower chance of developing [PD]… [Research] participants who followed the MIND diet more closely tended to develop the disease at a later age. The Mediterranean diet…has also been associated with a… lower likelihood of developing Parkinson’s. … Several studies have also linked higher consumption of ultra-processed foods with a greater risk of” PD.