Do you know about Parkinson's Disease?

What is Parkinsons Disease?

Parkinson's disease is a chronic neurodegeneration disease that affects the nervous system, specifically the area that coordinates the activity, muscle tone and movement. This area is called the substantia nigra.

Source: Wikipedia (By William Richard Growers)

What causes Parkinson's?

The cause of the disease is unknown, although studies are moving forward on this issue; it affects both men and women and the age of onset is between 40 and 70 years.

Symptoms of Parkinson:

There are four early signs of Parkinsons diseases that arecardinal signs, i.e. the appearance of two of them may guide the diagnosis of Parkinson:

- Resting tremor disappears to take a stand or take action; the most affected are the top members, although it can affect anyone worsened by fatigue or stress. It affects more than 70% of those affected. But we must clarify that there are multiple causes that can cause tremor.

- Muscle stiffness or resistance to perform the extensor and flexor movements of the limbs. It affects mainly the wrists and ankles and usually starts with pain or cramps.

- Slow movements requiring greater skill or precision, especially those movements begin and end.

- Postural alterations. The patient tends to take a position with the trunk, head and all four limbs bent. This hinders the march usually with small steps.

The disease progression varies widely depending on each patient.

Treatment of Parkinson's disease:

Currently, there is no cure for the disease, all are aimed at relieving symptoms and slow the progression.

Drug treatment must be prescribed and monitored by a neurologist but in general terms indicate that the purpose is to prevent the decrease in dopamine levels.

Rehabilitation is very important to maintain an active life of the patient and his self-control of own movements as large as possible. Some techniques of physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, hydrotherapy and massage are used, etc. Psychological support is essential for the patient to assume a chronic illness but can be alleviated with treatment and effort.

There are very encouraging studies have discovered a substance that may be involved in its origin and even a few months ago, news broke that it is working on a therapeutic vaccine. Despite hopes that it instills in the patients and their families, we must remember that this is still in early stages of study.