(Photo : Pixabay)

An estimated 10 million people worldwide are diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and numbers have increased in recent years. Parkinson's disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects a person's movement and its symptoms are sometimes barely noticeable like a tremor in just one hand.

According to the Parkinson's Foundation, there are more or less one million people who will be living with Parkinson's disease in 2020 and this data is more than the combined number of people with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Lou Gehrig's disease. It is also said that there are approximately 60,000 people every year diagnosed with this disease. Moreover, the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease increases depending on age, four percent of people are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease before the age of 50 and men are 1.5 times higher to have this disease compared to women.  

In an article published in Medical News Today, researchers from Helsinki University Hospital in Finland found that the use of some antibiotics may lead to Parkinson's disease after 15 years. Antibiotics that lead to this disease are those that contain macrolides and lincosamides, and most of the time doctors prescribe these oral dosages to fight microbial infections. 

The result of the study was discovered after it was realized that people with Parkinson's disease are often to have gut microbes and until now it is still not clear as to the reason for it. Moreover, people who have intestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and inflammatory bowel disease must seek a doctor specializing in neurology immediately because they are at a high risk of having Parkinson's disease. 

A neurologist from Helsinki University Hospital Dr. Filip Scheperjans said "The link between antibiotic exposure and Parkinson's disease fits the current view that in a significant proportion of patients the pathology of Parkinson's may originate in the gut, possibly related to microbial changes, years before the onset of typical Parkinson's motor symptoms and the discovery may also have implications for antibiotic prescribing practices in the future."

Meanwhile, this disease kills the dopamine cells in the substantia nigra that is responsible for the control of movements. If this will be damaged, a person may experience symptoms such as stiffness, shaking of hands, and problems with balance which is significantly common to all persons having Parkinson's disease. Most of all, persons with this disease may also develop psychological problems such as depression, mood changes, sleep disruption and more.

There are many studies already that establish the link of gut microbes and brain conditions, but this is still in much debate whether brain conditions such as multiple sclerosis, autism, and Parkinson's disease are associated with gut microbe changes or it just accompanies them.

In the first study presented by Dr. Scheperjans and his team, they found out that gut microbe changes are observed from people with Parkinson's disease at an early stage and the use of antibiotics can have long-term impacts on microbe populations. Meanwhile, their new study found out also that nobody has studied whether the use of antibiotics is associated with Parkinson's disease. This means that the study of Dr. Scheperjans is first of its kind. 

However, the study shows that antibiotics with macrolides and lincosamides had the strongest link to Parkinson's disease. Meanwhile, the researchers said that there is a need for further studies in this case. If the future studies confirm the results of Dr. Scheperjans and his team then it increases the susceptibility of the association of antibiotics and Parkinson's disease.