Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a complex, progressive infirmity that has a debilitating affect on daily movements that occurs due to nerve cells breakdown in the brain. Parkinson’s disease has no cure and herbal treatments are unverified. There is on-going research on the use of stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s Disease Causes:

• Decreased levels of the neurotransmitter or brain chemical known as dopamine due to deterioration and breakdown of the substantia nigra part of the brain that plays a crucial role in carrying out movement, leads to the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.
• The precise cause of the disease is still nebulous, though a detailed research is still underway regarding the correlation between Parkinson’s disease and factors like genetic predisposition, age factor, environmental contaminants and free radicals.
• A diminutive percentage of individuals with Parkinson’s disease have a close kin member having the disease, nonetheless abnormal genes apparently do appear to be a contributing factor in some families having regular occurrences of early-onset Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms:

The nature and the degree of symptoms that are experienced by the affected individual vary with each person and the stage of the disease. Certain symptoms that appear in the preliminary stages of the disease in a particular individual would not be noticed in another individual till very late or certain Parkinson’s patients might display no symptoms at all. The general symptoms are:

• Trembling, quivering mostly in the hands, arms or leg area while the individual is wakeful and is either in a seated or in an unmoving standing posture known as resting tremor, and noticeably reduced when any movement of the affected part of the body is done.
• Muscle aches and inflexibility or rigidness in the muscles that could commonly cause decreased mobility in swinging the arm on one side while walking. There could be stiffness in muscles in several areas of the body like the leg, facial, neck causing the muscles to ache and feel drained out.
• Sluggish, restricted mobility known as bradykinesia, particularly during moving from a resting posture like trying to get up from a seat or turning over in a lying down posture.
• Weak facial and throat muscles leading to difficulty in speaking, gulping that could deteriorate leading to choking, coughing and slobbering. Verbal communication becomes monotone and soft-speaking. Lack of movement of the facial muscles causes a rigid, blank expression of the face, mostly known as ‘Parkinson’s mask’.
• There is greater difficulty experienced in walking and maintaining balance or unstable posture. Such individuals usually undertake short steps, shuffling their feet near each other and stooping forwards with difficulty when trying to turn around. Such people are more prone to regular falls and accidents, although such problems normally crop up in the advanced stages of the disease.
• Physical exertion, emotional strain has a propensity to make the tremors more obvious.
• Reduced adroitness and hand-eye co-ordination, noticed variation in writing, dip in athletic skills, routine chores like getting dressed and consuming food tends to become troublesome.
• Muscular and joint spasms.
• Skin tends to become greasier with dandruff problem escalating.
• There is an increased urge to visit the loo and difficulty in controlling urine known as urinary incontinence. Medicines taken for Parkinson’s disease tend to aggravate this situation even further.
• Difficulty in digestion and constipation.
• Spontaneous body functioning like profuse sweating, decreased blood pressure during standing up known as orthostatic hypotension and sexual dysfunction. These indicators also arise due to medicines for Parkinson’s disease.
• A rapid, short instance of immobility or freezing up that mostly affects the person’s walking ability.
• Difficulty in going to sleep or being insomniac could be due to depressive behaviour, feeling anxious or restiveness. Such affected persons are usually immobile until nudged to move about, social withdrawal, moodiness, becoming more reliant, apprehensive, vacillating and inactive.
• Depressive tendencies set in that could additionally lead to loss in memory, dementia, and perplexity, becoming delusional and dramatic dreams that could at times be due to medications for treating Parkinson’s disease.

Exams & Tests:

After taking into account the patient’s symptoms, variations in moods and medical past, the doctor would undertake a neurological examination to check the functioning of the nerve cells. A check on muscle vigour, reflexes and eye sight is done. In certain situations, one might be urged to start a certain medication, the response to which is gauged by the doctor to help in detecting the presence of the disease.

Certain tests like an MRI scan for searching symptoms of a brain tumour or a stroke could be undertaken for ruling out any ailments that might be causing the symptoms.

Parkinson’s Disease Treatment:

Though no possible cure for this disease is existent, certain medication could curb the symptoms, making life easier. If one is mildly symptomatic, no medicines are necessary. Sleeping, taking complete relaxation and deliberate body movements or activities normally decrease or halt the tremors.

The doctor would prescribe medicines only if the symptoms start having a negative impact on daily life. Sometimes, the doctor would prescribe a combination of various medicines for optimal output. L-dopa or Levodopa is the top choice drug for managing the symptoms, though the protracted or a high dosage could entail problems.

In certain cases, a procedure known as deep brain stimulation is carried out for better functioning of the brain. Sometimes, physical and occupational therapy are also known to be beneficial to improving mobility.

Certain surgical procedures like pallidotomy, thalamotomy and transplantation are also considered in certain cases.

Possible Complications:

Though Parkinson’s disease is not a terminal disease, it does decrease prolonged existence, progressing faster in elderly patients leading to extreme incapability in one to two decades. There is a marked decline in emotional and mental health, dementia and sleep distress.

Prevention:

The accurate prevention strategy for Parkinson’s disease is still unknown. On-going studies have revealed that those who consumed diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fibre-rich foods, omega-3 fatty acids and those that reduced red meat and dairy produce consumption might have a certain level of safeguard against Parkinson’s disease.

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