Parkinson Disease Essay
Parkinson Disease
Parkinson disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder which affects 1.5 percent of global population over the age of sixty five years old and nearly one million patients in America. It was first described by a man named James Parkinson in 1817 whom called it the shaking palsy (in his work named "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy"). (Goetz) He noticed a collection of symptoms based on the way that these patients moved, including, the rest tremor, bradykinesia (slowness of movement), rigidity (stiffness), postural instability/gait disturbance (which is basically balance and walking problems). (Goetz) It was only later on in 1990`s that PD was categorized as a brain disease when autopsy of PD patients showed that the substantia …show more content…
(Visanji) This hypothesis asserts that while the SNCA`s gene mutation which leads to PD is rare, but perhaps there is something that causes these normal SNCA protein in the process of the movement from the gut to the brain to transform or be misfolded and thus turn into lewy bodies in the substanta nigra cells. …show more content…
The problem is that Levodopa is given in a way so that the PD patients would constantly have the right amount of dopamine in their system. (Hickey) However, firstly, overtime the brain grows tolerance to Levodopa and that sometimes cause a patients to have either too much dopamine in their system or too little. Secondly, since Levodopa is given in big pulses in contrast to the natural steady way that the brain does it, it can cause hypersensitivity in basal ganglia dopamine receptors. Thirdly, as PD progress and more substantia nigra cells are affected, one of the main ways that the brain regulate dopamine (namely via substanita nigra cells which take back the free dopamine after its usage) is affected. All of these can cause dyskineisia or wearing off complications of the Levodopa.
Parkinson disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder which affects 1.5 percent of global population over the age of sixty five years old and nearly one million patients in America. It was first described by a man named James Parkinson in 1817 whom called it the shaking palsy (in his work named "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy"). (Goetz) He noticed a collection of symptoms based on the way that these patients moved, including, the rest tremor, bradykinesia (slowness of movement), rigidity (stiffness), postural instability/gait disturbance (which is basically balance and walking problems). (Goetz) It was only later on in 1990`s that PD was categorized as a brain disease when autopsy of PD patients showed that the substantia …show more content…
(Visanji) This hypothesis asserts that while the SNCA`s gene mutation which leads to PD is rare, but perhaps there is something that causes these normal SNCA protein in the process of the movement from the gut to the brain to transform or be misfolded and thus turn into lewy bodies in the substanta nigra cells. …show more content…
The problem is that Levodopa is given in a way so that the PD patients would constantly have the right amount of dopamine in their system. (Hickey) However, firstly, overtime the brain grows tolerance to Levodopa and that sometimes cause a patients to have either too much dopamine in their system or too little. Secondly, since Levodopa is given in big pulses in contrast to the natural steady way that the brain does it, it can cause hypersensitivity in basal ganglia dopamine receptors. Thirdly, as PD progress and more substantia nigra cells are affected, one of the main ways that the brain regulate dopamine (namely via substanita nigra cells which take back the free dopamine after its usage) is affected. All of these can cause dyskineisia or wearing off complications of the Levodopa.