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Health

Your gut is full of neurons and they are replaced every 2 weeks

By Chelsea Whyte

5 November 2018

Nerve cells in small intestine

Nerve cells in the gut die and replace every few weeks

INNERSPACE IMAGING/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The neurons that make up your enteric nervous system 鈥 the 鈥渂rain鈥 in your gut 鈥 are almost entirely replaced every two weeks, a study in mice suggests. What’s more, an imbalance in the gut鈥檚 ability to repopulate itself with new neurons and clear out the dead ones could lead to Parkinson鈥檚 disease.

鈥淚t鈥檚 problems with the balance of the turnover of cells, not the neurons themselves, that can cause gastrointestinal problems and diseases,鈥 says Subhash Kulkarni聽at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, who presented his findings…

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