Understanding Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating, progressive illness which affects a person’s movement; various parts of the body can be affected and symptoms are stiffness in the muscles, difficulty when starting to move and slowness and tremor in the hands when they are at rest. The disease was named after Dr James Parkinson who first diagnosed the disease around the 1800`s.

Why does Parkinson’s disease happen?

The basal ganglia, a part of the brain is affected by the disease, it is a part which plays a vital role in how we control our movement. Cells in the substantia nigra, which is a part of the ganglia produce what is know as dopamine, when someone is affected by Parkinson’s the dopamine producing cells are lost and this then causes a shortage of dopamine in the brain. As for the reason these cells are lost not much is known on exactly why this happens. (more…)