Parkinson 's Disease : A Progressive Disease

Parkinson 's disease is a progressive neurologic degenerative disease of the Central Nervous system. The brain produces Dopamine and Norepinephrine, which are chemicals needed for smooth muscle movement and coordination, heart rate, and blood pressure. Dopamine and Norepinephrine are released by basal ganglions that are produced in a bundle of nerve cells in the brainstem called substantia nigra. In Parkinson 's patients, the substantia nigra are destroyed and neither of the chemicals can be released into the body. (3) The decrease in Norepinephrine causes heart arrhythmia and low blood pressure, causing the person to get dizzy upon standing or tire easily. The lack of Dopamine, the smooth muscle movement and coordination controller is now gone, or significantly decreased, resulting in the first signs of Parkinson’s disease, pill-rolling, a one handed tremor and a decreased appetite. (2)

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the central Nervous system and affects both motor and nonmotor functions. parkinson 's is caused by a chemical imbalance within the brain. The brain produces a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the basal ganglia, which is structures linked to the thalamus in the base of the brain. If the Dopamine, Basal ganglia and Thalamus does not function properly then causes major damage,. A person having less and less dopamine, the individual has less and less ability to regulate their movements, body and emotions. Although there is no current cure available for Parkinson’s disease, the debilitating conditions can be lessoned through education, therapy, and a variety of treatments to improve their quality of life on the National Parkinson Foundation website.

Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting primarily the patient’s motor function. The disease is characterized by rigidity, tremor at rest, bradykinesis, and decreased postural reflexes (Bollinger, Cowan, LaFontaine, Ronai, 2012). Parkinson disease was largely documented and brought to the forefront by James Parkinson, who published an article discussing the condition in 1817 (Lees, 2007). While great strides in understanding and treatment have been made, Parkinson disease is still considered an idiopathic disease (Lau & Breteler, 2006). Many areas of the disease process have been noted, but no one has been marked as the primary causative process, as well as little has been solidified in diagnostic procedures

This lead to what we know today (Dauer and Przedborski). Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder in which the dopamine making neurons in the brain slowly die. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that aids in movement, cognitive thinking, and many more things, so people with Parkinson’s disease usually have a tougher time getting around and thinking clearly. When the dopamine deteriorates, the neurons slowly die. Although scientists know that the loss of dopamine is what causes Parkinson’s disease, they still do not know what causes the dopamine to start deteriorating. “Many believe that by understanding the sequence of events that leads to the loss of dopamine cells, scientists will be able to develop treatments to stop or reverse the disease” (Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Causes). Through advances in the technological world, scientists are being able to research in ways that some people may have never thought would be possible.

Parkinson’s disease has been cataloged as one of the most serious and slowly progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects a wide array of motor and non-motor aspects that impact the function of a person. Afflicting over four million Americans and the second most common neurological disorder after Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s continues to take its toll on the neurological health of many(Constantinescu et al, 2007 ). James Parkinson, a British physician first coined this disorder as “shaky palsy” in 1817 and included clinical manifestations of this disease involving tremors with muscle weakness, bradycardia, rigidity, unstable posture, and gait abnormality that becomes worse over time

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic disorder of the nervous system with a gradual onset that primarily affects the body’s motor system. The symptoms of the disease are mainly caused by the death of dopamine-producing cells in the midbrain. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that, among other things, is responsible for playing a role in how the brain controls bodily movements. Therefore, the cardinal symptoms of the disease are movement related, including tremor and rigid, jerky movements. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, meaning it gets worse over time, until it eventually leads to complete disability. Parkinson’s is a fairly common disease, and several well-known people, such as actor Michael J. Fox and boxer Muhammad Ali have

What is Parkinson’s disease? Parkinson’s is a progressive condition by a loss of never cells in the brain known as neurodegeneration. The cause of neuronal loss in Parkinson’s is still unknown. However, the symptoms can still be explained by the loss of cells that contain neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine is a type of chemical that nerve cells release to communicate with other nerve cells. It is just not responsible for doing that, dopamine has many other functions it must do including important roles in behavior, voluntary movement, motivation, sleep, mood, attention, working memory, and learning. So, in Parkinson’s the neurons that produce dopamine slowly start dying. When dopamine levels get, lower this will cause an imbalance with the other neurotransmitters and will result with confusing both motor and non-motor symptoms which will get worse overtime. (Sethi 2002) Parkinson’s is a really known disease as Alzheimer’s it is said that there is an estimated number of up to 1.5 million Americans suffering from the disorder at any given time. (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015)

Charcot examined a large group of patients within Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, he had developed a way to observe tremors in action and at rest. “He noted that the patients with action tremor had accompanying features of weakness, spasticity, and visual disturbance. In contrast, those with rest tremor differed in having rigidity, slowed movements, a typical hunched posture, and very soft spoken.” (Goetz 2011) Charcot early tremor studies helped to establish Parkinson’s Disease through his very high publicized findings that neurological entity could be confidently be diagnosed. In 1957 a Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson found out that dopamine in the brain region that is important for movement control. He showed that the levels of dopamine can be reduced in animals to cause symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease and also by giving the animals levodopa (L-dopa) to reverse the symptoms of PD. PD is second most common neurodegenerative after Alzheimer’s Disease and the most common movement disorder. Over 60,000 people here in the United States are diagnosed every year but they say the numbers can be much higher with undiagnosed people out there but over one million people live with Parkinson daily.10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s Disease and April 11th is World Parkinson’s Day. On April 11th, 2017 marked 200 years since James Parkinson publicized his essay.

Parkinson’s is a very interesting disease because just like there is no set cure or cause, there is no one way diagnosis for the disease as well. However, doctors take into consideration the many symptoms that are typically present in someone

Wong, Gilmour and Ramage-Morin (2014) states that Parkinson’s disease comes second on the list of most common degenerative disorder of the nervous system. Dopamine, a substance synthesized in the body, is responsible for the normal movements of the body (Wong, Gilmour and Ramage-Morin, 2014). In Parkinson’s disease, the cells responsible for synthesizing Dopamine are damaged and incapacitated to form it (Wong, Gilmour and Ramage-Morin, 2014). The lower levels of Dopamine result in muscle tremors, sluggish muscle movements, rigidity, impaired reflexes and loss of equilibrium (Wong, Gilmour and Ramage-Morin, 2014). Patient may experience various other

Parkinson 's disease is a chronic progressive movement disorder of the central nervous system. Early in the course of the disease, the most obvious symptoms are movement-related; these include shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with walking and Parkinson’s like gait (leaning forward, small fast pace steps, shuffling, etc.). Parkinson’s involves the malfunction and death of nerve cells in the brain, entitled neurons. Although damage can be spread about, it primarily affects neurons in an area of the brain called the substantia nigra. The substantia nigra controls voluntary movement, produces the neurotransmitter dopamine, and regulates mood. When taking an in-depth look into the changes a Parkinson’s patient goes through, we see symptoms clearly connecting to that of the substantia nigra malfunctioning. Parkinson’s disease is a chronic and progressive disorder of the brain primarily affecting the motor system, but also affecting thinking and emotion.

Parkinson’s disease has been known about since ancient times. In AD 175, the physician Galen described it as “shaking palsy” in Western medical literature. It wasn’t until 1817 that a London doctor, named James Parkinson, wrote a detailed medical essay on this disease. This essay established Parkinson’s disease as a recognized medical condition. He based the essay off of six cases he had observed previously and hoped that it would encourage others to study the disease. No such research was performed until finally, sixty years after Parkinson’s essay was published, a French neurologist named Jean Charcot studied the disease and was the first to truly recognize the importance of Parkinson’s work. As a result, he named the disease after him. Much has been learned about the disease since then; however, much of it still remains a mystery. Researchers have learned that the symptoms for this disease are progressive, degenerative, and tend to occur more in older individuals. It has been found that a dopamine deficiency of the brain is the root of the matter; although, why this initially occurs is less clear. The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation was created in 1957 to assist those who are suffering and promote and fund further research. Since the 1960’s research has only progressed more and more rapidly. Even though there still is no known cure, the symptoms can now be effectively controlled and reduced in severity. Moreover, many other foundations assisting the cause have been

It’s constantly increasing rate of spread and prevalence continues to extend over society. This therefore calls for the need for more comprehensive and clearer approaches both preventive and curative, in curbing the severity of the disease. It is important to therefore understand the disease in terms of epidemiology, ages, transmission, genetics and populations affected. This research will therefore delve into highlighting the normal functions of organs and further detail the weaknesses in the tissues structures that make the tissues vulnerable to the disease. The research will also broaden our knowledge on the cellular and chemical changes to the primary and secondary systems and organs affected by Parkinson disease. By including diagnostic methods and criteria, this research will demonstrate scientific understanding of the psychosocial effects of the disease on other organs. Lastly, it shall seek to explain medical interventions that can help alleviate the problem, severity and prognosis for recovery. Both beneficial and adverse effects of all medical interventions shall also be discussed (Weiner et al,

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 disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized mainly by physical and psychological disabilities. This disorder was named after James Parkinson, an English physician who first described it as shaking palsy in 1817 (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). Jean- Martin Charcot, who was a French neurologist, then progressed and further refined the description of the disease and identified other clinical features of PD (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). PD involves the loss of cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the brain stem called the substansia nigra, which results in several signs and symptoms (Byrd, Marks, and Starr, 2000). It is manifested clinically by tremor,