preview

Parkinson's Disease Research Paper

Decent Essays

In 1817, James Parkinson, a British physician, published his essay reporting this disease citing six cases of paralysis agitans. An Essay on the Shaking Palsy described the characteristic resting tremor, abnormal posture and gait, paralysis and diminished muscle strength, and the way that the disease progresses over so it was labeled Parkinson’s disease (PD) in his honor. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that progresses slowly in most people. Most people's symptoms take years to develop, and they live for years with the disease. In short, a person's brain slowly stops producing a neurotransmitter called dopamine. With less and less dopamine, a person has less and less ability to regulate their movements, body and …show more content…

A handful of genes have been identified for what doctors call young-onset Parkinson’s, which strikes before the age of forty, these cases account for fewer than ten out of every one hundred patients. Some scientists believe that these genes may be “activated” by exposure to an environmental agent, such as pesticides or viruses, and that such agents prompt the onset of the disease even in those individuals who carry none of the suspected genes. Japanese scientists showed that a virulent strain of influenza A accumulates in the same area of the brain. The symptom varies for each stage of PD, in stage 1, mild tremor or rigidity is seen on one side of the body. In stage 2, tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia occur on both sides of the body, without any loss of balance. In stage 3, added to the symptoms of stage 2 are balance difficulty, loss of posture control, and hunching over. With stage 4, the extent of the functional disability increases, but some independent function is still possible. Such severe symptoms occur in stage 5 that patients are confined to bed or to wheelchairs. Thanks to great research and modern medicines patient doesn’t go beyond stage 3. PD maybe clear in the body site but its cause maybe unclear. Since PD isn’t like many other neurologic diseases, it’s not inherited. Cases of twins have shown this (Brown

Get Access