Parkinson’s disease may not begin in the same place in everyone. A growing body of research is exploring a distinction between forms that originate in the gut and those that start in the brain, according to a Nature article published on 4 November 2026.
The idea was once controversial, but is now advancing understanding of the disease. The article describes the proposed subtypes as differing according to where the process that leads to Parkinson’s begins.
It opens with the experience of Myriam Penninckx, whose right arm began shaking during lunch at a restaurant in Brussels. She had also noticed that her handwriting had become difficult to read and that she was slowing down physically and mentally.
Sources: Nature.