Over the past two decades, researchers have documented numerous links between Parkinson’s disease and Gaucher disease. Rare patients with Gaucher disease show parkinsonian symptoms¹ and many more have family members with Parkinson’s disease.² Lewy bodies—large aggregates of alpha synuclein protein characteristic of Parkinson’s disease—have been identified in the brains of Gaucher patients,³ and approximately 5-10% of those with sporadic Parkinson’s disease show mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene, the cause of Gaucher disease.^4,5

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