Parkinson Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. The most well-known sign of Parkinson disease is the tremor in just one hand. Family can notice that you have Parkinson disease when there’s little expression in your face and you don’t swing your arms when you walk. Speech often becomes soft and mumbling. Parkinson disease symptoms tend to worsen as the disease progresses. There are many different medicines that treat this disease, but sometimes doctor may tell you to apply surgery. The symptoms may vary from person to person. Symptoms usually begin on one side of the body and remain worse in that side of the body. Some of the symptoms are: Tremor: the shaking usually starts on the hand.
Slowed motion: Parkinson’s disease may reduce your ability to start initiate voluntary movement. For example, when you walk your step might become short. Rigid muscles: Stiffness can occur in any part of your body and sometimes it can be really bad that it can affect the range of movement you have in that part of your body. Impaired posture and balance: posture may become stooped, and balance problems can occur.
Loss of automatic movement: Blinking, smiling and swinging of the arms are all involuntary acts that are a normal part of the human being. With the Parkinson disease these act are reduce and sometimes even lost. Speech changes: people with Parkinson disease may speak softly, rapidly or in a monotone. Sometimes repeating words, or hesitating before answering. Dementia: when the disease has progress a while people tend to deal with memory and mental clarity problems. Your physical, mental, and social state are affected by this disease. Your physical state is affected because this disease deteriorates your physical state little by little. Your mental state is affected because your brain is not functioning as it supposed to be, and socially it affects you because you are incapable of doing many activities that you would be able to do if you didn’t have the disease.
You need to see the doctor if you suffer any of these symptoms above. Internally the disease affects your body and the ability to do stuff. Externally it affects you and your relationship with your environment and
everyone else around you.
Causes of this disease may be:
The exact cause of Parkinson disease is unknown, but there are many factors that play in the role… Your genes: it is said that either inherited or caused by an environmental exposure these genes change might be responsible for Parkinson’s disease. Environmental triggers: exposure to certain toxins or viruses may trigger some of the symptoms and signs of the Parkinson’s disease. The position of your brain is critical because with this disease you are losing many of your main chemical messengers that help you do many of your automatic activities. Little by little you will lose some of the involuntary action you usually do.
Several changes in the brain of individuals with Parkinson disease are noticeable, these changes include: A lack of dopamine: many symptoms of the Parkinson’s disease result from the lack of a chemical messenger called dopamine. This result when some cells of the brain that produce this chemical die or become reduced. The reason of these happening is unknown. Low norepinephrine levels: chemical messenger that controls automatic functions. For example, blood pressure. The presence of Lewy bodies.
It spreads with time and it is usually worse in one side. I don’t think this disease will kill you, but it will disable you from many activities that a normal person can do. The disease affects most of your involuntary activities and the medicines use for it can also have side effects.
Risk factors: age(older people has more risk), heredity, sex (male are more likely to suffer from it), and exposure to toxins. The disease gets worse as time pass by. In the past you will suffer some symptoms, but as present and future come the disease will affect you more and more. Parkinson disease is often accompanied by additional problems like: depression, sleep problems, difficulty chewing and swallowing, urinary problems, constipation, sexual dysfunction. What can you do when preparing for an appointment?
Write down any of the symptoms you are feeling, write down key personal information, make a list of all the medication you are taking, ask someone
to come with you, and write down questions you may want to ask to your doctor. The doctor will test you, but there’s not really a test for Parkinson’s disease. It is based on your medical history and a neurological exam. The doctor will make a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease if you: at least have two of the three Parkinson’s symptoms-tremor, slowing of motion and muscle rigidity, if these symptoms are mainly in one side of the body, if the tremor is more severe at rest, and if you improve significantly with the Parkinson’s medication levodopa. Levodopa is a natural medicine that when it is taken in a form of a pill; it will go through the brain and transform to dopamine. It becomes less effective as disease progresses and it has some side effects.
