Parkinson Disease Essay

Some experts believe this disease is related to the inhalation of pesticides, while others believe it results from the inhalation of chemical elements such as copper, lead, or manganese. It has been linked to heredity. It is believed that 15% of those diagnosed with the disease have a family history of the mutated gene. Scientists believe there are two types of carriers for this gene that determines a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. The first type of carrier guarantees a diagnosis, whereas the second type of carrier only increases the chance of being diagnosed. This theory has yet to be

The cause of Parkinson disease, defined by Robert Hauser, who is an author of Medscape, is still unclear. Studies state that there is a combination of environmental and genetic factors for this particular disease. Approximately 10% of cases are currently genetic causes of Parkinson disease. Environmental risk factors such as use of pesticides, living in a rural environment, consumption of well water, exposure to herbicides, and proximity to industrial plants or quarries are commonly associated with the development of Parkinson disease (Hauser, 2016). In addition, according to Hauser, “genetic factors in Parkinson disease appear to be very important when the disease begins at or before age 50 years. In a study of 193 twins, overall concordance for MZ and DZ pairs was similar, but in 16 pairs of twins, in whom Parkinson disease was diagnosed at or before age 50 years, all 4 MZ pairs, but only 2 of 12 DZ pairs, was concordant.The identification of a few families with familial Parkinson disease sparked further interest in the genetics of the disease.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a slowly progressing neurologic disorder that affects the brain’s ability to regulate motor function. Most patients are able to live for years with the disease. Although there is no available cure for PD, patients are typically successful in managing symptoms and maintaining a good quality of life.

Author Lorraine V. Kalia wrote in The Lancet Journal on April 20, 2015 on Parkinson’s disease, she explains the fundamentals of the disease in which she highlights that the disease is more than a genetic disease but also influenced by environmental factors. Parkinson’s disease is classified as a neurodegenerative disease that affects motor functions in the body. It is caused from the death of dopamine producing neurons in the substantia nigra or the brain’s control center. The cause of the death of the neurons is still unknown; this makes the treatment and diagnosis of this disease much harder in the early stages. The death of neurons leads to a motor function It is diagnosed in the late stage that is accompanied by trembling, rigidity, slowness

Parkinson’s Disease is known as one of the most common progressive and chronic neurodegenerative disorders. It belongs to a group of conditions known as movement disorders. Parkinson disease is a component of hypokinetic disorder because it causes a decreased in bodily movement. It affects people who are usually over the age of 50. It can impair an individual motor as well as non-motor function. Some of the primary symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are characterized by tremors or trembling in hands, legs and arms. In early symptoms the tremor can be unilateral, appearing in one side of body but progression in the disease can cause it to spread to both sides; rigidity or a resistant to movement affects most people with Parkinson’s disease,

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder that affects the nervous system, specifically the movement. The most common and most notable symptom is the tremor. The tremor is often found in the arm or hand. Symptoms of Parkinson’s have appeared throughout history. In India, as early as 5000 B.C. certain symptoms of Parkinson’s have showed up. Scientists and researchers

Each year more than 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PDF, 2014). That sixty thousand does not include the many thousand cases that go undetected each year. Parkinson’s is a progressive disorder that occurs in the nervous system. This disease affects a person’s movement. Parkinson’s disease develops progressively. The most common first sign of Parkinson’s is slight shaking of a body part. In the initial phase of Parkinson’s a person will experience slurring of speech and an expressionless face (Mayo Clinic, 2014). With time, the symptoms of Parkinson’s exacerbate. This disease is most frequently seen in people over the age of 50 (PDF, 2014). Parkinson’s disease is generated by a great number of reasons.

When the neurons die, they produce something called dopamines. A dopamine is a neurotransmitter. They send messages to the brain that disrupts coordination and movement. The part of the brain that the neurons are affected is called the substantia nigra. The substantia nigra is in the brain stem, right above the spinal cord. These parts are essential to the functioning of the central nervous system. With the progression of this disease, the dopamine levels decrease, and the person is unable to control their movement . (http://www.pdf.org/about_pd)

An important finding in past decades is that Parkinson’s disease (PD) is not just a disease of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). Significant neuronal loss (≈80%) in the locus coerueus (LC) occurs in PD. Neurodegenerration of LC neurons starts earlier with a greater magnitude than that in the SNpc. Evidence to support this pathogenesis in PD also includes: 1) Lewy bodies, a typical pathologic alteration of PD, accumulate with a greater extent in the LC before their appearance in the SNpc. 2) The non-motor symptoms, closely correlated with loss of LC neurons, often occur many years before the onset of motor dysfunction. 3) Animal PD models showed an earlier loss of LC neurons than the SNpc. Together, these

Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease is extremely important in terms of treating the symptoms before the disease gets worse. It is common for patients with PD to have motor symptoms such as gait disorder, which comes from muscle stiffness/rigidity, bradykinesia, postural imbalance, etc. Gait disorders can generally help determine how far the neurological disorder has affected the motor function and control of the individual. Many physicians in general clinics determine if a patient has PD or if it has progressed through evaluating the patients gait pattern, focused on a direct path walking. The problem with this way of diagnosis is that direct paths would generally require the clinic to have a space of 100-meter length for the patient to walk;

The chief neurotransmitter—or carrier of nerve signals—in this area of the brain is dopamine, which is deficient in people who have Parkinson's. The cause of this deficiency is not known, but research suggests that several factors may reinforce each other to produce Parkinson's disease. There may be a genetic predisposition for some forms of the disease—between 15 and 20 percent of people with Parkinson's are closely related to an individual who displays the disease's characteristic symptoms. In 1996 scientists identified a gene associated with a rare form of Parkinson's disease. Genetic predisposition may be limited only to rare forms of the disease, however. A 1999 study found that the most common form of Parkinson's disease is not inherited, suggesting that exposure to certain environmental agents may be a primary cause.

Resting tremors, which presents unilateral tremor in the hand or foot. Rigidity presents increased resistance and stiffness in the limbs. Bradykinesia presents as slowness of movement, difficulties planning, initiating, and executing movement. Postural instability presents imbalance and loss of righting reflexes. Additional motor symptoms that may arise with Parkinson’s disease are dysarthria, hypophonia, dysphagia, sialorrhea, dystonia, freezing, micrographia, and mask-like expression. Dysarthria results in a motor speech disorder. Hypophonia results in soft speech, dysphagia causes dif¬ficulty swallowing. Sialorrhea causes drooling or excessive salivation. The gait freezing causes patient to hesitate before stepping forward or experience the inability to continue move¬ments when already in motion, increasing their chances of falling. Micrographia causes shrinkage of handwriting and progresses with increased amounts of writing. Mask-like expression causes patients faces to appear less expressive than usual. Nolden, et al.’s (2014) Lastly, non-motor symptoms that may arise with Parkinson’s disease are mood disorders, sleep disorders, urologic disturbances, sexual dysfunction, depression, anxiety, and cognitive

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most frequent movement disorder and the second most common neurodegenerative disease (Bueler 2009). Over 1% of the entire population over the age of 60, and up to 5% of age 80, is affected by PD (Wood-Kaczmar, Gandhi et al. 2006). The pathogenesis of PD remains unclear, but can be categorized as sporadic, being the most common form, and Mendelian, which accounts for 5-10% of all PD cases (Guo 2008). The studies of Mendelian onset of PD have lead to the identification of five genes being linked to this neurodegenerative disease (Guo 2008). α-Synuclein (SNCA) and Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) mediate autosomal dominant forms of PD. PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1),

Parkinson’s disease is growing in the elderly population other than Alzheimer's. Parkinson’s is an incurable disease, in the journal article “Parkinson’s disease risk from ambient exposure to pesticides”, Parkinson’s is defined as “a common movement disorder associated with the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons of a substantia nigra” (Wang et al, p. 548, 2011). The national library of medicine indicated symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include “trembling of hands, arms, legs, jaw and face, stiffness of the arms, legs and trunk, slowness of movement, and poor balance and coordination (“National Library of Medicine,” 2014). Even though some may hear or even see a person with Parkinson’s disease (PD), there is a lack of knowledge about who is

Parkinson’s disease is a disease of the central nervous system that affects movement, causing widespread tremors along with other symptoms. It is a result of the loss of dopamine-releasing cells in the midbrain, specifically the substantia nigra pars compacta. There are many theories as to how Parkinson’s disease develops, including the possibility of genetic mutations, certain toxins in the environment, and oxidative stress. The vast majority of Parkinson’s patients are males older than fifty; however, there are cases of Parkinson’s disease in children as young as thirteen. Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include isolated or widespread tremors, stiffness, and slowing of movement. There