Understanding Parkinson's Disease

By the time someone shows signs and symptoms of Parkinson 's, Dopamine production in the brain has been reduced by 60 to 80% and is fairly advanced. This results in the most recognizable sign of Parkinson 's disease, the resting tremor of the hand or hands. During deliberate movement, the resting tremor goes away, at first. At rest, the tremor will become exacerbated,

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 symptoms of Parkinson's disease that Ali experienced began in the early 1980's. His feet didn't seem to move as fast as they once did, and the usually proud man slouched forward in a defeated position. His thinking was also beginning to be impaired.

Parkinson’s Disease is a long-term progressive neurodegenerative disease consisting of motor system impairment, neuropsychiatric, and nonmotor features. The disease is characterized by the following key clinical features: bradykinesia, resting tremor, postural instability, and rigidity. These symptoms are due to the diminishing of dopamine in the nigrostriatal pathway and substantia nigra, which causes inhibition of the thalamus decreasing excitatory input to the motor cortex.1 Along with the key manifestations an individual with Parkinson’s Disease will experience problems associated with the disease or the antiparkinson medications. These co-occurring problems are hallucinations, dementia, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, depression, and pyschosis.2 Psychosis is a common problem in Parkinson’s Disease, and is characterized by paranoid delusions and hallucinations that are visual in nature.2 Risk factors for psychosis consists of advancing age, dementia, sleep disorders, and high doses of antiparkinson drugs.1

Many people around the world today suffer from Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. A movement disorder is a disorder impairing the speed, fluency, quality, and ease of movement. There are many types of movement disorders such as impaired fluency and speed of movement (dyskinesia), excessive movements (hyperkinesia), and slurred movements (hypokinesia). Some types of movement disorders are ataxia, a lack of coordination, Huntington's disease, multiple system atrophies, myoclonus, brief, rapid outbursts of movement, progressive supranuclear palsy, restless legs syndrome, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, tics, Tourette's syndrome, tremor, Wilson disease, dystonia, which causes involuntary body movement, and Parkinson's disease. Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, and tics are one of the most widely known of these disorders, known to impair people of movements and rob them of their lives.

There is no scientific test to diagnose Parkinson’s. This disease can be observed through three signs, a resting tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia. Rigidity in the muscles can affect the mobility of a patient. These signs can develop at different times and in different types of severity making it more difficult to diagnose. “No specific test exists to diagnose Parkinson’s disease” ( Mayo 4). Along with the three signs the doctor can also use a patient's medical history, and a neurological physical exam. A Neurologist is the doctor who will diagnose this disease. Parkinson’s disease most often develops in adults around the age of 60. The procedure for diagnosis is the same for all ages and

Parkinson’s disease is defined as “a progressive, chronic, neurodegenerative disease” (Medscape, 2014). Parkinson’s disease affects the movement of the body and develops gradually, starting from a slight tremor and can progress into loss of autonomic movements to speech changes and writing changes. In this paper the author will discuss ethical and legal concepts related to Parkinson’s disease and how certain treatments like stem cell transplants can help but also be a major risk factors and have ethical problems. Also the author will discuss the management of care for Parkinson’s disease and how to advocate for your patients, teach them how to deal with their ever changing body and lastly how developing research can help to find a cure or even a better treatment for this progressive neurological disease. Parkinson’s disease has no cure and it is important as a health care professional to understand the state of mind that your patient is in in order to provide the best quality of life so that they can live comfortably and happy as their disease progresses through their bodies.

The symptoms of this disease usually take months, if not years to develop, making PD hard to diagnose during early onset. Like many cancers, the symptoms associated with this disease, such as tremors and stiffness, may develop at different stages. Pinpointing PD generally occurs after many of the symptoms develop, usually in the later stages, although PD can occur more rapidly in some people. According to NINDS (2011), “the diagnosis is based on medical history and a neurological examination. The disease can be difficult to diagnose accurately. Doctors may sometimes request brain scans or laboratory tests in order to rule out other diseases” (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/parkinsons_disease/parkinsons_

Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that is classified as a movement disorder (Pinel, 2013). Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disease, meaning it does more damage over time. Many people may believe that Parkinson’s is an uncommon disease, however it affects as much as 1 percentage of the population over the age of 60 (Shafique, Blagrove, Chung, & Logendrarajah, 2011). Surprisingly, men are two and a half times more likely to develop Parkinson’s over women (Pinel, 2013). Parkinson’s is a disease that dramatically impacts those who suffer from it. Parkinson’s disease affects every part of a patient’s life, including personal and professional, health, and all matters pertaining to the quality of life. While

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative debilitating movement disease which gets worse over time (Medscape, 2015). After much research and study no known cause has yet been determined and experts have hypothesized that it is a mix of inherited and environmental factors (Medscape, 2015). However, regardless of the unspecific cause, it is characterized by a significant loss in dopamine transportation to the basal ganglia which manifests itself in the three following physiologic signs: resting tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia (slow and reduced movement) (Mahan, Escott-Stump & Raymond, 2012). In North America PD is one of the most prevalent neurological disorders affecting relatively 1% of persons older than 65 years of age and within 5 years 66% of patients are disabled and by 10 years 80% are disabled (Mahan et al., 2012). PD increases in incidence with age, is not partial to socioeconomic status, is more common in whites than in Asian or Blacks and is predominately seen between the ages of 40 and 70 (Mahan et al., 2012).

Parkinson's is a chronic and progressive movement disorder and it worsens over time. Nearly a million people are living with Parkinson's in the us. There is no known cure but there is medication and surgery which can help manage the symptoms. the cause is unknown.Parkinsons involves the death of neurons in the area of the brain called the Substantia Nigral. Some of these neurons release dopamine a chemical that sends messages to the part of the brain in charge of movement and coordination.As Parkinson's progresses the amount of dopamine decreases leaving the brain unable to control movement normally. The symptoms of Parkinson's are the slowness of thought, Forgetfulness

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 very common disorder these days. Over 10 million people live daily with Parkinson worldwide. Parkinson’s Disease was named after an English surgeon James Parkinson who wrote a detailed description essay called Shaking Palsy in 1817. The average age for Parkinson’s Disease is between 45 to 70 years old but you can also have juvenile or young onset as well. Most common symptoms of Parkinson are tremors, bradykinesia or akinesia, or rigidity or stiffness, and balance disorder. Parkinson’s Disease doesn’t have a cure and the cause is unknown it could be a number of things genetics, environmental triggers, age, or gender. Parkinson’s Disease happens because the dopaminergic neuron dies and

To see the world through the eyes of a child. Where clouds are creatures, stuffed animals come to life and trees can talk. This is what some Parkinson patients experience in the course of their illness. Parkinson’s, a disease in which a part of the brain becomes progressively damaged, inspired Graphic Designer Robert John to reengage with the things we see everyday. “When we were kids we use to see amazing things…this projects asks us to go back to that imagination, and show everyone what we see in the world around us.” He states on his website. His project ‘What I see when I look at’ is now showing at the GX Gallery in Camberwell. Exhibited are Johns own work as well as alterations to his originals by nine artists under the title `Re- Imagined´. Supporting the cause of Parkinson’s, this collection