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The Incurable Progressive Parkinson's Disease

There are approximately 50,000 Americans receiving the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease every year. Most of those individuals are over 60 but there are individuals who are under 40 years of age that are also receiving the diagnosis. Parkinson's affects the nervous systems causing shaking and slowing of movement and also rigidity of muscles. Sections of the person's face can become immobile giving them a "mask-like" appearance. Can you imagine 50,000 people experiencing these symptoms?

New experiments using stem cells and gene therapy are currently being conducted to give these people hope for the future. One strange fact that has emerged from Parkinson's research is that those who smoke cigarettes have a smaller chance of developing Parkinson's disease than non-smokers. This fact leads researchers to suspect that nicotine has some kind of protective qualities against the destructive forces that are causing the neuro-transmitters inside the brain to start to malfunction causing the shakes and other symptoms. The good news is that Parkinson's is not contagious. There are some suspicions that Parkinson's may be connected to severe drug abuse or certain types of head injuries.

The one fact that those 50,000 newly diagnosed will have to face is that there is no hope of recovery and only a future of progressively worsening symptoms unless research can come up with a new treatment or better yet, a cure.

A part of the middle brain known as the substantia nigra, becomes impaired or die off and this is why the dopamine production diminishes which raises the risk for Parkinson's disease.

Individuals with Parkinson's also exhibit symptoms such as handwriting micrographia (small handwriting), depression, soft voice or muffled voice, irregular gait or clumsy unbalanced walking, and a reduction in automatic movements such as blinking of eyes. In the beginning the symptoms of Parkinson's will be mild and the individual may not seek medical attention. The symptom that brings most individuals to the doctor is the tremor that occurs during periods of rest. People will place a trembling hand in a pant pocket or hold onto something in order to attempt to gain some measure of control over the tremors. During the first phase of the disease these tremors are usually restricted to a single limb but eventually it progresses to involve other limbs.

It is difficult to diagnose Parkinson's because it cannot be done with traditional methods of a blood test or urinalysis or even by x-ray. A MRI may be useful in separating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease from other neurological and brain disorders but it cannot be used to diagnose Parkinson's. The diagnosis is usually made by ruling out all other possible diseases or disorders.

A diagnosis can only be used to say that the person has Parkinson's and be used to minimize or control the symptoms associated with the disease. At the present time there is no cure for Parkinson's, it is an incurable progressive disease.