Parkinson's Disease
Have you ever seen those horror movies in which people get possessed? They lose absolute control of their bodies and can do very little about it. Unlike those fictional movies, Parkinson’s disease is a reality which has similar effects. It takes peoples ability to fully control their body. Those who believe that this cannot and will not ever happen do them clearly do not realize that this is the most common movement disorder in the history of mankind. Despite the few treatment options available to merely slow down the symptoms, there is no absolute cure for this disease. The disease just becomes worse and worse until the symptoms completely take over and seize control of your own body. Eventually, you become a ghost of your former self. The evidence in this paper will show some shocking statistics, facts, symptoms, some of the methods that doctors utilize in order to manage and treat this disease, and the true reality of Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s disease was discovered in 1817 by the English physician James Parkinson (Hauser, 2010, 1). It is a neurological disease that slowly leads to loss of coordination and balance (McCoy, 2009, 13). Parkinson’s is known as the most common movement disorder in the world (Heyn, 2010, 3). This means that about 1% of people over 60 will have Parkinson’s (Hauser, 2010, 4). It also a progressive disease which means it gradually gets worse over time (McCoy, 2009, 5). Due to the fact it is progressive and neurological, it is considered a neurodegenerative disorder (Hauser, 2010, 6). This Disease ravages the lives of about 60,000 United States citizens a year. About 1.5 million people in the United States are already affected by this terrible disease (McCoy, 2009, 7). It is estimated that about 5 million people have Parkinson’s worldwide (Heyn, 2010, 8). The older you get and some exposures to industrial chemicals are some of the risk factors for Parkinson’s disease (McCoy, 2009, 9). No matter who you are, you can always get Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease occurs about 1.5 times more in men than in women (Hauser, 2010, 10). It also has a higher statistical rate of occurring in men above 60, but there have been reports of cases where people below the age of 40 have had the disease, but the chances of that are very low (Hauser, 2010, 11). Even though genetics has a fairly small effect in getting Parkinson’s disease someone with a family history of Parkinson’s disease is more likely to have it than others people that don’t have that family history. Researchers have found that 5 genes are surely associated with Parkinson’s disease. The first is SNCA which makes alpha-synuclein, the second is PARK2 which makes the protein park to help break down and recycle other proteins, PARK7 is a gene that makes DJ-1, a protein that protects cells from oxidative stress, the function of the protein PINK1 makes is not fully known, but this gene is begins to mutate in the early stages of Parkinson’s, LRRK2 starts becoming mutated in the late stages of Parkinson’s (Heyn, 2010, 12). Parkinson’s disease doesn’t directly damage the body it is a neurological disease which means it actually damages or kills nerves, specifically those which are located in a part of the brain called the substanita nigra. These nerves control the production of dopamine. Dopamine connects between the substantia nigra and the corpus striatum to help people have well flowed movements (McCoy, 2009, 13). There are also 5 stages of Parkinson’s, each one gets worse after the other. In stage one the symptoms only affect one side of the persons body. In stage 2 the symptoms affect both sides of the body but you can still manage to keep your balance. In stage three you lose a little bit of your balance but you can do things by yourselves. In stage 4 the person becomes almost incapable to move without help. In the last stage the person has to sit in a wheel char or stay in bed, he/she can move if they have the help of another person (McCoy, 2009, 14).
Parkinson’s disease like other disease has symptoms which indicate that you have the disease. There are several symptoms for Parkinson’s disease. One is involuntary shaking called tremors or tremulousness. Many times these tremors are the first signs of Parkinson’s disease (McCoy, 2009, 15). These resting tremors usually cause the person’s hand to shake when they aren’t using it, but when he or she moves the hand to do get something the tremors stop (McNamara, 2009, 16). Tremors for Parkinson’s usually occur in the hosts hands, feet, forearm, and fingers (Heyn, 2010, 17). While not as common they may also occur in the chin and mouth (Anonymous, 2011, 18). About 70% of people with Parkinson’s usually experience tremors within the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (Anonymous, 2011, 19). Another symptom of Parkinson’s disease is bradykinesia. Bradykinesia causes abnormally slow movements; this is often found in people with Parkinson’s disease (McCoy, 2009, 20). This slowness is because of the loss of dopamine, because of that the signals between your brain and body are delayed and people with Parkinson’s will have this down time while the delayed dopamine tries to tell the body what to do (Kelley, 2008, 21). The slowness caused by bradykinesia affects a person’s speech making them sound as though they are mumbling; it also affects their swallowing leading to drooling and excess saliva (Anonymous, 2011, 22). Other things that bradykinesia can do is cause troubles immediately stopping while having an ongoing movement and have troubles doing complete movements (Anonymous, 2011, 23). Bradykinesia can also affect the patient’s facial muscles, this causes the person to have less facial expressions making them seem like they has no emotions (Anonymous, 2011, 24) . The effects if bradykinesia mainly changes a person with Parkinson’s daily schedule. It causes simple things such as changing clothes into a daily hassles. The slowness caused by bradykinesia can also cause them to be behind on things they need to do. (McNamara, 2009, 25). People also become rigidity in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. It causes stiffness which is considered to be increased muscle tone (Anonymous, 2011, 26). If someone is rigidity that means that the person who has Parkinson’s will become brittle and have troubles moving their trunk, arms, and legs (McCoy, 2009, 27). This stiffness causes the person who has Parkinson’s disease to become cramped up and may lead to some pain (Anonymous, 2011, 28). Another symptom is impaired balance which means people can’t walk without aid of a walker, cane, or other support device it also means that people with Parkinson’s will have troubles standing still. The impaired balance occasionally leads to falling, and since most people that have Parkinson’s are old falling does more damage since they are more fragile than young people and they might also have troubles getting up. A person who has this impaired balance might also have troubles starting to walk (Anonymous, 2011, 29). A very rare symptom that people get from Parkinson’s disease is dementia. Luckily, there is less than half of a percent chance of people over 60 getting dementia. Dementia causes the person to lose some of their memory and attention span. Along with that dementia causes troubles organizing, setting priorities, and they have making decisions by themselves (McCoy, 2009, 30). There are also some people who have sleeping problems caused by Parkinson’s disease. One of these problems is insomnia, this means that the person can’t sleep well. People who have insomnia also have troubles falling asleep and when they do they get very few hours of sleep at a time, not enough to get the recommended hours of a good night’s sleep. They also lose the amount of deep sleep they used to have and it was replaced with a light nap (McNamara, 2009, 31). Other sleeping problems include over sleeping during the day time, this usually happens during the mid stages of Parkinson’s (McNamara, 2009, 32). Another symptom people have is depression, 40% of people with Parkinson’s are depressed (McNamara, 2009, 33). When depressed the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s seem like they are worse. It is also hard to maintain relationships because of the mood change caused by being depressed (McNamara, 2009, 34). A person with Parkinson’s becomes depressed because he or she has so little activity in their orbitofrontal cortex because the dopamine that is supposed to manage that part of the brain is gone. This specific part of the brain is the part that determines the pleasures and rewards we receive so people with Parkinson’s do not feel the same pleasure from rewards as other people do (McNamara, 2009, 35).
Until someone with Parkinson’s disease is dead there is no test that can be taken to know if someone has Parkinson’s (Heyn, 2010, 36). A neurologist who specializes in movement disorders can give the clearest answer on whether or not an individual has Parkinson’s disease (Heyn, 2010, 37). The reason an expert is needed to tell you that you have Parkinson’s is because it is often misdiagnosed as another movement disorder due to the similar symptoms (Heyn, 2010, 38). To see if you have Parkinson’s a doctor checks your family history seeing if any of your relatives has or had Parkinson’s, the doctor then looks at the results of a neurological exam. There is also the signs of early Parkinson’s to look at too; they check if the person has 2/3 of the major symptoms, if the symptoms only effects one side of the body, and lastly if the problem is caused by other things such as dizziness from medicine (Heyn, 2010, 39). Unfortunately, there is no known cure for Parkinson’s disease. However, there are many treatments and medications people can use to lessen the effects of their symptoms (McCoy, 2009, 40). The medicine people take depends on what stage of Parkinson’s they are. In the early stages no medicine has to be taken, after that when there starts to be mild symptoms like slight loss of balance, people start using Parkinson’s medication such as levodopa. After the levodopa stops working or works for very little time people can choose to increase the dosage or add a new treatment called COMT inhibitor which basically makes the effects of the levodopa stronger. In the later stages of Parkinson’s when people start getting symptoms randomly instead of expected moments there is the option of surgery or keep taking the required medication the doctor has provided; then when the medication is at it’s prime there will be signs of Dyskinesia which is having troubles moving when you want to. In the last stages of Parkinson’s medication will stop to work overall and the only thing you can do is get surgery (McCoy, 2009, 41). A common treatment people usually use to fight the symptoms of Parkinson’s is called dopamine replacement therapy. This is the process of inserting levodopa into the body of a person with Parkinson’s disease. The levodopa will then make more dopamine in the brain, which replaces the ones that are lost because of Parkinson’s. Eventually, the prescription of levodopa will not work as well as it used to because the symptoms for Parkinson’s get worse, so the dosage must increase to balance it out. The side effects of using dopamine replacement therapy are that sometimes too much dopamine gets produced causing nausea, vomiting, lowered blood pressure, and loss of appetite (McNamara, 2009, 42). Another way to treat Parkinson’s is by using dopamine agonists. Dopamine agonists are drugs that copy the things that dopamine do and use those at the cells of the brain that use dopamine. The characteristics of dopamine that the dopamine agonists copy lead the brain to have more dopamine activity causing the symptoms to lessen. Unfortunately, there is a series of side effects from using these drugs like sleeping too much during the day, troubles controlling behavior, and lower blood pressure (McNamara, 2009, 43). Another way to treat Parkinson’s is Mucuna Pruriens. This is an herb that has been used for around 5,000 years in India to treat people with Parkinson’s disease (Rudolph, 2010, 44). This herb has a high concentration of levodopa. The great thing that sets Mucuna Pruriens apart from the other treatments is that it has fewer side effects; and another good thing about this herb is it slows down some of the major symptoms of Parkinson’s like rigidity, tremors, and balancing issues (Rudolph, 2010, 45). In clinical studies this natural way of getting the levodopa helps ease symptoms faster then the fake one (Rudolph, 2010, 46). It is also recommended that Mucuna Pruriens not be used while pregnant or breastfeeding (Rudolph, 2010, 47).
Ultimately, Parkinson’s is an unforgiving disease which takes away a persons ability to fully control their body’s movement. It is a disease with no cure and therefore nothing to stop it. The symptoms that occur only get worse and worse as time goes on and because it is so common you might even know some, may it be directly or indirectly, that has this disease. Luckily, the advances in healthcare provide treatments that can slow down the effects of the symptoms enough to allow these people to live productive lives.
Works Cited
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