Symptoms Of Parkinson's 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 is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, primarily affecting voluntary, precise, and controlled movement. Parkinson’s occurs when cells in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra die off. These cells are responsible for producing dopamine. With less and less dopamine, a person has less and less ability to regulate their movements, body and emotions. The terms "familial Parkinson's disease" and "sporadic Parkinson's disease" are used to differentiate genetic from truly idiopathic forms of the disease.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that affects the motor system. It is marked by tremor at rest, muscular rigidity, postural instability, and slow, imprecise movement. The most obvious symptoms are movement related, which include; shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement, difficult with walking, balance, and gait. Other motor symptoms include: posture disturbances, such as a decrease in arm swing, a forward flexed posture, and the use of small steps when walking. Speech and swallowing disturbances are also common motor problems that can appear as well to a patient with Parkinson's disease. Young adults rarely experience Parkinson's disease because it is more common to affect

The substantia nigra is where the neurotransmitter dopamine is made by cells. Neurons between the substantia nigra and the stratum send messages via dopamine. As the cells of the sustantia nigra deteriorate in Parkinsons so does the levels of dopamine in the brain, which is necessary for sending messages to other areas of the brain for movement control (Obeso, Rodríguez‐Oroz, Benitez‐Temino, Blesa, Guridi, Marin, & Rodriguez, 2008). The decrease in dopamine production also changes the dopamine to acetylcholine relationship in the brain, which the striatum require to function properly. While the striatum is very complex system which involves signal suppression and enhancement within the brain, the altered ratio of dopamine and acetylcholine can cause some tracts to be under suppressed and over suppressed (Obeso, Rodríguez‐Oroz, Benitez‐Temino, Blesa, Guridi, Marin, & Rodriguez, 2008). The degradation of the cells in the basal ganglia cause is unknown, but many suggest pesticide exposure, serious consecutive brain injury and possible genetic factors.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. The loss of dopamine neurons in the mid-brain substantia nigra region leads to Parkinson’s, in which a person has rigidity, slowness of movement, postural instability, and typically a resting tremor. It develops gradually, sometimes starting with a barely noticeable tremor in just one hand. But while a tremor may be the most common sign of Parkinson’s disease, the disorder also commonly causes stiffness or slowing of

Parkinson Disease’s (PD) is defined as progressive loss of pigmented neurons or cells in the substantia nigra of the brain. These cells manufacture the molecule dopamine, a chemical responsible for regulating purposeful movements. Moreover, when the dopamine level in the brain depletes by 80 percent, the patient will begin experiencing symptoms of PD. Genetics also play a vital role in Parkinson’s development--mutations in the Leucine-Repeat Kinase 2 are its greatest contributors. Furthermore, dopamine levels progressively drop in patients with the disease; therefore, their symptoms gradually become severe as they age. Parkinson’s symptoms are categorized into primary, secondary, motor, and nonmotor. (Fallon & Cataldo, 2013)

These tremors are most often seen in hands and the feet, but can be seen throughout the entire body. Tremors seem to be the worst when a person is a rest, but subside when a person is active, and completely disappear only when a person is sleeping. Parkinson’s people also have a significant amount of rigidity. They have what you call “cogwheel” movement, where they move in segments per say.(Parkinson’s Disease n.d.) They also have a “lead pipe” movement which as you can guess is heavy moments of the limbs. Loss of postural reflexes is another huge give away for Parkinson’s. People with this disease have a hard time standing up right, and are flexed and hunched over at all joints including the back, hips and knees. You can see the picture on the right is of a very severe case of Parkinson’s, he is showing that bent posture in all positions. Back to the lack of dopamine which I explained before was an inhibitory neurotransmitter, a patient with Parkinson’s becomes very unstable and is less able to make compensatory changes to regain their balance. Those diagnosed have a very distinguished gait pattern, which is another dead giveaway. Because they are flexed forward and have a hard time with their center of gravity, they start to shuffle their feet and fall forward, which is called festinating. There is a significant delay between planning to move and actually moving. They now require

Symptoms of PD are categorized into motor and non-motor areas. Motor symptoms include slowness of movement (bradykinesia), tremor at rest, stiffness in limbs and abdomen, and difficulty with balance. More minor motor symptoms could be small handwriting, shuffled walk, loss of facial expression, and decreased ability in automatic reflexes. Non-motor symptoms include mood disorders, cognitive changes, hallucinations/delusions, constipation, pain, fatigue, vision problems, reduced sensation of smell, and impulsive control

These nonmotor or autonomic symptoms include depression, apathy, anxiety, sweating, sexual dysfunction, memory problems, sleep disturbances, bladder problems, and constipation (Weiner). Among these autonomic symptoms, depression is the most common psychiatric symptom in patients with PD since an individual 's quality of life decreases and they soon are unable to care for themselves once their symptoms interfere with their everyday life (Tuite).

Parkinson’s disease is affected by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons which is responsible to produce dopamine. Dopaminergic neurons have their cell bodies in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) in basal ganglia (O’Sullivan and Schmitz, 2007). Basal ganglia are a collection of interconnected gray matter nuclear masses deep within the brain”. These gray matter masses are caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, subthalamic nucleus and the substantia nigra. Basal ganglia receive its input through striatum (O’Sullivan and Schmitz, 2007).

To begin, the first major physical impairment in Moderate Parkinson’s Disease is tremors. Sharee A. Wiggins and RelayHealth explain, “Parkinsonian tremors are slow rhythmic, shaking movements. They are most obvious and bothersome when your hands are at rest. These kinds of movements are linked to the brain disorder called Parkinson’s Disease (par. 1). Tremors that occur in Parkinson’s Disease are the most common symptom. These occur due to the lack of Dopamine in the brain. This rather irritating symptom is present in most Parkinson’s patients. Normally this symptom occurs early in the disease. Tremors occur mostly in the hands and fingers, but can also show in the head, tongue, voice, trunk, and legs. According to Abraham N. Lieberman and Frank L. Williams, “Tremor is the most obvious symptom in Parkinson’s disease, affecting about 75 percent of all patients. Tremor generally occurs early in the course of the disease, but may never occur in all patients” (173). Tremors normally will occur on one side of the body, but as the disease progresses it can reach to more of the body affecting all body parts, such as the lips, jaw, and tongue. The diagnosis of

A technique has been found that reveals a rhythmic 4-6 Hz tremor immediately following voluntary movements even in those PD patients that do not show clinically obvious resting tremor, indicating that even in PD patients without observable tremor, the abnormal mechanisms for generating the pathological 4-6 Hz tremor exist, but for some unknown reason do not normally come into play. Tremor analysis of this type may be of use in strengthening uncertain diagnoses of PD, or possibly in providing an early indication of the onset of the disease As to the cause of the tremor, it has generally been postulated to result from oscillatory activity of thalamocortical loops, independent of actual basal ganglia circuitry. Recent findings involving the subthalamic nucleus, however, suggest that the basal ganglia may actually participate directly in tremor production in PD.

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 is a neurodegenerative disorder of certain neurons that die off from brain that decrease dopamine levels. Symptoms may defer between patients. Some individuals with Parkinson’s Disease may have shaking of the hands, arms while sitting or standing or may experience loss of balance. Including difficulty in speech for example speaking softly then regularly or more monotone voice.

The neural pathway go to the caudate nucleus and putamen of the basal ganglia which is also known as the striatum. The receptors can have an excitatory or inhibitory effect depending on dopamine release by the substantia nigra. Typically, the dopamine has excitatory effects in the motor cortex which results in movement of the body. In people with Parkinson’s disease, the dopamine releasing neurons in the substantia nigra are degenerated. The