Parkinson’s disease: Symptoms and Causes

What is Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD also known as idiopathic or primary parkinsonism, hypokinetic rigid syndrome/HRS, or paralysis agitans) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects your movement. It will develops gradually, sometimes starting with a barely noticeable tremor in just one hand. While a tremor may be the most well-known sign of Parkinson’s disease disorder also commonly causes stiffness or slowing of movement.

In the early stages of Parkinson’s disease your face may show little or no expression or your arms may not swing when you walk. Your speech but may become soft or slurred. Parkinson’s disease symptoms may worsen as your condition progresses over time.

Although Parkinson’s disease can’t be cured and medications may markedly improve your symptoms. In some cases, your doctor may suggest surgery to regulate certain regions of your brain and improve your symptoms.

Parkinson’s disease affects the nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine. The parkinson’s disease symptoms include rigidity of the muscle, tremors, and changes in speech and gait. After few diagnosis, treatments can help relieve symptoms, but there is no cure for such disease.

Symptoms

Symptoms begin gradually, often on one side of the body later on they affect both sides.

This includes:

♦ Trembling of hands, arms, legs, jaw and face
♦ Stiffness of the arms, legs and trunk
♦ Slowness of movement
♦ Poor balance and coordination

As symptoms get worse, people with the disease may have trouble talking, walking, or doing simple tasks. They have problems such as depression, trouble chewing or sleep problems or swallowing, or speaking.

Causes

In Parkinson’s disease, certain nerve cells (neurons) in the brain gradually break down or die. Plenty of symptoms are due to loss of neurons that produce a chemical messenger in your brain called dopamine. When dopamine may levels decrease, it causes abnormality of the brain activity and will lead to signs of Parkinson’s disease.

The cause of Parkinson’s disease is unknown, but some factors appear to play a role and this includes:

♦ Your genes. Researchers have identified specific genetic mutations that can cause Parkinson’s disease, these are uncommon except in rare cases with many family members affected by Parkinson’s disease.

However, some gene variations appear to increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease but with a relatively small risk of Parkinson’s disease for each of these genetic markers.

♦ Environmental triggers. Exposure to certain toxins or environmental factors may increase the risk of later Parkinson’s disease, but the risk is very small.

In summary, it needs more research to be done to identify the factors causing Parkinson’s disease.

Many changes occur in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease, this will includes: 

♦ The presence of Lewy bodies. Clumps of specific substances within brain cells are microscopic markers of Parkinson’s disease. These were called Lewy bodies, and the researchers believe these Lewy bodies hold an important clue to the cause of Parkinson’s disease.

♦ A-synuclein is found within Lewy bodies. Although plenty of substances are found within Lewy bodies, scientists believe that the most important of these is the natural and widespread protein called alpha-synuclein. . Can be found in all Lewy bodies in a clumped form that cells can’t break down. This is more important focus among Parkinson’s disease researchers.