Parkinson’s Disease Pt 4

Do you know how Parkinson’s Disease get its name? Well it was down to a doctor named James Parkinson’s back in 1817. He noted what has became known as the classic symptoms of the condition tremor, rigidity, slow movements. Now days balance problems have been added to this list. There are other not so common symptoms.

Dr Parkinson first name for the condition was “shaking palsy”, I don’t know when it became more commonly referred to as Parkinson’s Disease.

Someone with Parkinson’s may not have all four of the main symptoms in fact some don’t have a tremor. However, from what I have read everyone with Parkinson’s has bradykinesia which is the slowness of movements. Generally speaking a person will not be diagnosed with Parkinson’s if they do not show signs of bradykinesia that said a person needs to have other symptoms in order to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

As mentioned not all suffers have a tremor and a tremor on it’s own could be something else. Tremors can be difficult to treat and may be disabling, even though usually the tremor can be treated with medication that either controls the tremor or eliminating it but of course they don’t always work. Around one in five Parkinson’s suffers have a treatment resistant tremor.

Then we have the issue with slow movements and smaller movements when being examined the doctor will have the patient tap the middle finger against the thumb so the doctor can see how big the movements are as well as how fast the movement is done.

Some other examples of this is small handwriting and taking more time to write the words from experience when saying handwriting they mean cursive writing not printing. Suffers also often find that their arms may stop swinging when they walk.

Then there is the problems with facial expressions which includes less blinking and have a mask like expression or may look like they are angry or upset when they are not either. They can have slurred speech spoken in a soft voice. Overtime they may find it hard to get out of a low chair and walk in a shuffling way.

Also under the umbrella of Bradykinesia comes a slowness in reaction time which is one reason why people with Parkinson’s fall over, as if they trip they cannot react fast enough to prevent a fall. It can also affect how someone gets in and out of bed, in and out of low chairs, and in and out of a car. Medication is good for this in the early stages of the disease.