Personal Narrative: Parkinson's Disease

This paper explores two diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, which share many notable traits. Both diseases affect the person’s normal, daily functions. Affecting movement and thinking, Alzheimer and Parkinson’s greatly interferes a person’s day-to-day activities. This paper will demonstrate the similarities and differences of these two diseases and how it greatly affects a person’s life. The pathophysiology, causes, signs and symptoms, and management of these two diseases will be further explored in the paper. Articles will also demonstrate how prevalent theses diseases are in society.

In a concise article, registered pharmacist Thomas Viola presents a description of the effects of Parkinson's Disease on one of his patients. Viola discusses etiology of Parkinson's Disease, progression of the disease, and pharmacological treatment. At the heart of his presentation are specific suggestions for dental professionals working with patients affected by the disease.

They have trouble eating and writing because of cramping in their hands. Bradykinesia is slowness of voluntary movement. It gets harder for them to initiate movement and to complete movement. This can cause expressionless “mask-like” appearance because this can affect their facial muscles. Postural instability makes it difficult for the individual to maintain balance in their posture. This can cause them to trip and fall. Parkinsonian gait is a more aggressive symptom, this causes the individual to walk with a distinctive shuffle in a stooping position. Most people lose the ability to swing their arms while walking to keep their balance, which can cause them to fall or stumble.

About seven million people worldwide, one million people in America, and about 60,000 new people every year are all affected by one disease (Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Statistics). That disease is Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s takes away little things like movement that many of us take for granted. Lives are changed because of Parkinson’s, but there is hope. Through medical breakthroughs discovered in recent years, my grandpa and many others suffering from Parkinson’s disease have a chance at a better life.

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

Imagine a scenario where our countries safety is in danger, and the president has to release our nuclear weapons at a specific time. What would happen if the president freezes, or has tremors and is not able to give the command at the correct time? The role of the President is very important to American society; Parkinson’s inhibits a person from completing daily or strenuous tasks. The video in question argues that Hillary Clinton is in the 1/100 percentile that has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the nervous system that affects the movement of the body. Parkinson’s is caused by nerve cell damage in the brain, where brain cells are gradually breaking down and dying. This disease begins at a low rate; this stage is shown through tremors in the individual’s hands. While tremors are the warning signs of Parkinson’s disease, this disease can also cause an individual to have slow movements, rigid muscles, impaired posture or balance, speech change and loss of automatic movements. Some complications that come from Parkinson’s are thinking difficulties, emotional changes, and sleep problems and disorders (Parkinson’s Disease, 2015). The video that we are using in this analysis is Hillary Clinton Illness Revealed, and it was found on YouTube. As a doctor, Ted Noel uses this video to help explore the possibility of Hillary Clinton having Parkinson’s disease. The analysis of Parkinson’s disease and the symptoms it expresses will help us

A study done has brought up the potential of coffee preventing PD. The benefits are most likely coming from the caffeine. It could lead to new treatments or even eventually pevent the disorder. In the study, men who did not drink coffee were five times more likely to develop PD than those who drank up to 6 ounce cups per day. Men who did not drink coffee were only 2-3 more times likely to develop the disease than men who had 4 ounce cups a day. The results are only based on men and cannot be confirmed for women yet. Caffeine may be protecting the brain from nerve-call damage that causes the PD. An additional factor that could attribute to the results is cigarette smoking. If caffeine indeed does have benefits, it is not clear whether it can prevent or slow

The South Dakota Parkinson’s Foundation offers support groups in various communities in South Dakota. These communities include Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Brookings, Mitchell, Viborg, Watertown, and Yankton. Apart from Viborg, all of these locations are larger population centers. It is obviously important for these locations to have these support groups, however we are neglecting the rural populations of the state. Also, several of these locations are located reasonably close to each other. I believe we can expand these types of programs to the western side of the state as well, not just Rapid

It is estimated that seven to ten million people are currently living with Parkinson’s disease around the world. There’s no manual on how to take care of a loved one suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. However, there are tips to make your life as a caregiver a bit easier.

disorder that affects 10 million people worldwide. It is characterized by progressive loss of midbrain dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Neither the molecular mechanism that underlies the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s is fully understood nor preventative and effective treatment is available. In the past few years, epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as potential mediators of environmental factors which cause abnormal epigenetic modifications which have been detected in PD. The term Epigenetics, refers to reversible heritable alterations in gene expression without any changes in DNA sequence. Fundamental mechanism of epigenetic regulation is mainly chromatin modification which is divided into several categories including DNA methylation, histone modification, histone variant, and non-coding RNA. This assignment discusses on recent studies on how epigenetic dysregulation, which modulates gene expression, plays key role in

The journal article, The impact of Parkinson’s disease on vocal-prosodic communication from the perspective of the listeners, written by Marc D. Pell, Henry S. Cheang, and Carol L. Leonard in 2005, discusses the impact of dysprosody on people with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, (PD) from the viewpoint of the listeners. Both the experimental and control groups were recorded when completing speech tasks. The aim of this article was to study how listeners perceive the speech of persons with PD, and if they are able to differentiate the emotions of the speakers with Parkinson’s disease compared to the healthy adult speakers.

Case study: Parkinson’s Disease John is a 68-year-old male factory worker who was referred to an outpatient clinic due to a nine-month resting tremor of his right hand, which later progressed to the contra lateral leg. John's doctor prescribed 250mg of oral Levodopa twice daily. He has recently had a fall. Following neurological examination, he was found to have normal cognition.

To reflect these upgraded facilities, they decided to overhaul their website at the same time.

Parkinson’s disease is incurable. However, there are different medications than can be utilized to help control the symptoms. These medications will help assist in managing problems with walking, movement & tremor. These drugs substitute for dopamine in the brain. Parkinson’s disease is caused by lowered levels of dopamine, a chemical that is found in the brain. Medications such as Levodopa act as a substitution for dopamine in the brain to normalize levels. This helps manage the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, however does not change the course of the disease itself. (LeWitt, 2015) The drug exhibits side effects also, the more common side effects that will require medical attention comprise of increased anxiety

My father is a rather hefty man standing at 6’4 and weighing in around 350 pounds. I realized each time I saw him he seemed to shrink a little more and was becoming a little more fragile. He had not been feeling well for a little over six months and had lost 150 pounds. He could not consume food or liquids and dehydration had set in. He had been to the doctors many times over the course of the six months and they would reassure him that it was acid reflux. He then started to reveal blood when he would emesis, and that is when the doctor decided to take a deeper look into the problem. The appointment was set and he went for four tests to see if in fact there was something wrong. I was at work