Question
Parkinson's Disease is a chronic disease, progressive, and may affect the brain. The things that patients experience are movement-related disorders, meaning they have tremors, slowness of movement, and their arms and legs are stiffer. These are the motor symptoms they present.
The reasons why they have these symptoms is the degeneration within certain specific cells in the brain that produces dopamine, in other words, due to the lack of dopamine which results in these symptoms.
The signs and symptoms of Parkinson disease can vary for each individual. They can be mild, especially in the very early stages. Over time, the important cardinal signs of Parkinson disease develop initially on one side of the body before progressing to affect both sides. These are shaking (tremors), stiffness (rigidity) and slowness of movement (bradykinesia). The tremors often start in the limb, most noticeably in the hand. A key feature is that the tremor in the hand happens when the hand is resting. This is also known as a rest tremor occurring at 4-6Hz.
Parkinson's Disease is more common in the older group of people. Usually, people in the older age group who are diagnosed are in their 60s, or 0. 3% of the population. As you get older it gets more and more prevalent, so if you are more than 65 years old, there is at 1%. In younger patients, we present about 7% of the total group of patients with Parkinson's Disease.
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