Parkinson’s disease guide

The exact cause of Parkinson’s disease isn’t known and it is a disease which gradually gets worse over time and affects thousands of people throughout the world. It is a disease which affects people of all races, gender and age, though it is more prevalent in those over the age of 65. It is a particularly debilitating disease with symptoms that affect the movement, gait, posture and speech in the sufferer.

What is Parkinson’s disease?

Parkinson’s disease is the degeneration of an area deep in the brain called the basal ganglia, or to be more precise the substantia nigra. This area in the brain contains black pigmented cells which in a normal human being produce chemical transmitters, of which the most important is dopamine. These transmitters are chemical which pass on messages from one cell to the other, they either stimulate or inhabit as necessary.

When someone suffers from Parkinson’s disease the cells in the basal ganglia produce less dopamine and with dopamine being needed to transmit the messages to parts of the brain, spinal chord, muscles and nerves, symptoms of the disease show as rigidity and slowness of movement.

There is normally a balance between dopamine and another transmitter which is called acetylcholine, this is usually present in many areas of the brain and plays an important part in memory and recall.

In someone who has Parkinson’s dopamine is depleted and there is an excess of acetylcholine, this is why two of the most common types of medication used in the treatment of Parkinson’s is dopamine in the form of Levodopa and drugs which help to restore the balance of acetylcholine called anticholinergic in the form of benzhexol.

Ageing and heredity

Parkinson’s disease is by no means caused by the process of ageing that has an affect on everyone’s brain to some extent; however the incidence of contracting the disease as we get older does increase. Research is currently underway in determining the heredity factor associated with Parkinson’s disease, with a very weak link being found to associate Parkinson’s with Alzheimer’s disease.

Important points about Parkinson’s disease

• The exact cause of Parkinson’s disease is unknown at the present time.
• It is the reduction in the chemical dopamine that causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s such as tremor, rigidity and gait.
• While Parkinson’s cannot be cured the symptoms can be greatly helped with the use of medication such as Levodopa which replenishes the dopamine levels lost in the brain.