preview

Parkinson Disease

Decent Essays

According to a study by Murdock, Cousins, and Kernohan, these four major signs make Parkinson disease more and more crippling and life-threatening: resting tremors, Rigidity, Bradykinesia, and Postural instability. 1st sign are Resting tremors. Resting tremors are seen as the shaking of the limb, even when the person is at rest. Often, the tremor affects only the hand or fingers and the tremors can trigger during any type of movement of an affected body part. In the early stages of the disease, about 70 % of people experience a slight tremor in the hand or foot on one side of the body, or less commonly in the jaw or face. The 2nd sign is Rigidity, which causes stiffness and inflexibility of the limbs, neck and trunk. Muscles normally stretch when they move, and then relax when they are at rest. In …show more content…

Rigidity can be very uncomfortable and even painful. Most people with Parkinson’s disease don’t walk with their arms swinging because of stiff and rigid muscles. The rigidity also causes the patient to have slow movement. Because muscles are so tight and can’t easily move, patients take a long time moving from step to step because of the associated pain. Another symptom that challenges Parkinson’s disease patients is slurred speech. People have a difficult time understanding what patients are saying. Parkinson’s disease can affect a person’s voice, causing them to speak softly or have difficulty forming sounds clearly. The third sign is Bradykinesia, which is one of the most significant problems for Parkinson disease patients. According to data from robot-assisted gait training, Bradykinesia causes everything the patient does to be slow. Bradykinesia is also expressed as micrographia (small handwriting), hypomimia (decreased facial expression), decreased blink rate, and hypophonia (soft speech). Bradykinesia causes difficulty with repetitive movements, such as finger

Get Access