Parkinson’s Disease research by Amba

Overview:
In the United States are currently one million people diseased with Parkinson and each year 50-60,000 new cases are diagnosed. Estimated 4 to 6 million people around the world suffer from the condition.

What is Parkinson’s Disease?
Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that progresses slowly. Neurons (brain cells) normally produce dopamine. These neurons concentrate in a particular area of the brain, called the substantia nigra.

Dopamine is a chemical that relays messages between the substantia nigra and other parts of the brain to control movements of the human body. Dopamine helps humans to have smooth coordinated muscle movements. When approximately 60 to 80% of the dopamine-producing cells are damaged, and do not produce enough dopamine, the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear. This process of impairment of brain cells is called neurodegeneration.

Who can get Parkinson’s Disease?
Parkinson's disease is usually affecting people over the age of 50. The average age of onset is 60 years. However, some physicians have reportedly noticed more cases of "early-onset" Parkinson's disease in the past several years, and some have estimated that 5 to 10 percent of patients are under the age of 40.

You can find Parkinson’s Disease all over the world and it strikes men and women in almost equal numbers. Some studies show that African-Americans and Asians are less likely than whites to develop Parkinson's disease.

How do people get Parkinson’s Disease
A small percentage of cases are hereditary (that means it’s in peoples genes), but in most cases the cause is known. Suspected causes include environmental pollutants.


Symptoms
The Four Main Motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease are:
• Shaking or tremor at rest.
• Slowness of movement
• Stiffness or rigidity of the arms, legs or trunk.
• Trouble with balance and falls, also called postural instability. Postural instability usually appears later with disease progression and may not be present with initial diagnosis.
Secondary Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease can also include:
• Small, cramped handwriting
• Reduced arm swing on the affected side
• Slight foot drag on affected side creating a shuffled walk
• “Freezing”—a term used to describe the phenomenon of being “stuck in place” when attempting to walk
• Loss of facial expression due to rigidity of facial muscles
• Low voice volume or muffled speech
• Tendency to fall backwards
• Decrease ability in automatic reflexes such as blinking and swallowing
Other Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease are:
• Depression
• Anxiety- beyond the normal response to stress
• Hallucinations, psychosis
• Sleep disturbances (vivid dreams, talking and moving during night sleep)
• Pain
• oily skin

Treatment:
Unfortunately there is no cure for disease. Doctors can only treat the symptoms.
Medications for Motor Symptoms
Since most symptoms of PD are caused by the lack of dopamine in the brain, many Parkinson’s drugs are used to replace the lacking dopamine. These types of drugs are called dopaminergic. These medications generally help reduce muscle rigidity, improve speed and coordination of movement and lessen tremor.

Always remember that medication usage is only part of the whole treatment plan for effectively treating PD. Learn more about the available medications for the treatment of PD now.


Surgical Treatment Options
Surgery may be used to control symptoms of Parkinson's disease and improve the quality of life when medication becomes ineffective or when medication side effects, such as jerking, become to much. Not every Parkinson's patient is a good candidate for surgery. Only about 10% of Parkinson's patients can become candidates for surgery.

Exercise
Exercise is an important for everybody’s health. But very important for people with Parkinson’s Disease because it helps them with their balance and in their daily activities.

Speech & Swallowing
People with Parkinson’s Disease might have problems with chewing, eating, speaking or swallowing.

Interview with Ladies:
We interviewed three wonderful ladies who are currently suffering from Parkinson’s. They were diagnosed 8 to 16 years ago and they are at different stages of the disease. One lady has two dogs that help her when she suddenly can’t move and freeze. Just a sign with one finger and her dog comes and supports her. She gets her medication though an implant in her brain that regulates the amount of dopamine she needs. She is a very happy lady who loves when others smile at her and threat her as a “normal” person.

Another lady was a teacher for many years. When the first symptoms started, she was afraid she had a brain tumor. She had never been involved with Parkinson’s Disease till she got diagnosed about 8 years ago. When we first saw her, none of us would have thought that she has Parkinson’s. She needed some help for walking, but only because she had an hip operation some month ago. During the time we saw her, she had to take her drugs twice. As she told us it has to be always on time, or she will have symptoms coming up. Towards the end of the interview, she asked us if we could see any different in the way she sits etc. Yes, we could see it, her expression were more stiff and her face was not as relaxed. Even she took her medication, it did not respond the way it should and she could barely move her left leg and her left arm. We learned that the patient’s daily health can change in just 10 minutes. That is crazy. Also, the longer they take a certain medication, the less it is working.

When the lady was in the hospital for her hip operation, she felt that the daily strict schedule in the hospital is not favorable for Parkinson’s Disease patients. Sometimes the nurses did not show up at the right time for her dopamine medication and she immediately felt the result. Fortunately she decided to have some of the drugs with her so she can take them even the nurse did not show up.

All three ladies think that their disease could be caused by pesticides they were exposed as children and young adult. They drank out of a well and ate fruits from the field, not knowing about all the chemical that were used.

Sources:
• National Parkinson Foundation www.parkinson.org
• http://seniorhealth.about.com
• www.neurologychannel.com
• Parkinson’s Disease – Diseases and People by Alvin and Virginia Silverstein and Laura Silverstein Nunn 2002
• http://www.webmd.com/parkinsons-disease/parkinsons-causes
• Interview with Linda, Aiko and Lorraine