UNDERSTANDING THE PROGRESSIVELY PARKINSON’S DISEASE

There are many things we scarcely notice in ourselves which are either taken for granted or we always have a reason for it.

Consider these: Slight tremor in the hands and is considered as a result of stress. Twitch in the shoulder and is attributed to muscle strain. Stopped posture maybe attributed to bad posture. Softening of voice is attributed to hoarseness. Friends also notice the trembling of your hand or legs and even the change in the pace of your walking which is slow. They also observed that you have a mask or a poker face and they comment that you do not smile anymore. The comments are ignored but you feel something is not right and then you start to relate what you feel and see within your body to what Mohammad Ali went through, likewise with the famous stars like Janet Reno and Michael J. Fox. They are suffering or suffered Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by a combination of postural instability,  bradykinesia, and also resting tremor and rigidity. Resting tremor is trembling of the hands or feet that occur when they are at rest. That is if your hand trembles and the trembling stops when you stretch out to reach for a pencil or anything and the trembling returns when you rest or relax your hand. This should not be confused with Essential Tremor (ET) or the tremor that increase when you stretch your hand and stops when you rest it. The tremor of Parkinson’s disease starts with one hand and in time involves the other. While in ET, the tremor starts in both hands at the same time.

The rigidity of PD affects the muscles of the arm and legs and the stiffness is on the same side as the tremor. The stiffness does not go away when you relax your arm or leg it is always contracted.

The movement disorder is called bradykinesia or slow movement. The person with PD may hesitate or have difficulty in initiating a movement or may not be able to complete a movement or there is an arrest of an ongoing movement. An example of this is the inability to swing one hand or both of the arms while walking. Bradykinesia is the most disabling symptom of PD.

PD is a slowly progressive disease, that is, the symptoms worsen with time. The early symptoms may be subtle, hence something to be dismissed or taken for something else. When PD begins, only one side is usually affected like stiffness in a leg while walking. As PD progresses, the other side becomes involved.

The prevalence of PD increases with age. Those over 65 years of age, the prevalence rises as high as three percent and those in 80 years and older, the prevalence may rise as high as 10 percent.

PD is a chronic condition, an imbalance like diabetes. However, the two conditions are different. In diabetes, there is a lack of insulin resulting in a high blood sugar which is easy to measure while PD, there is a lack of chemical in the substantia nigra of the brain called Dopamine which is not easy to measure. Substancia Nigra is a portion of the brain with darkly pigmented cells that is a principal location affected by Parkinson’s disease. Diabetes is a disease of the glands while PD is a disease in the brain. PD is not diagnosed by a blood test but through the symptoms that a loss of dopamine causes.