Brief Information on Parkinson's Disease

What do Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox have in common? They both have Parkinson's Disease. This disease affects about 1 in 100 Americans, and there are about 50,000 new cases of Parkinson's diagnosed yearly. The disease was named after a physician from London, England, James Parkinson, who published a report in 1817 describing the clinical symptoms of "the shaking palsy".

Dopamine is produced in the substantia nigra and is the chemical messenger responsible for sending signals to the next relay station of the brain. The substantia nigra becomes unregulated when the dopamine cells die causing physical control problems. This condition is called Parkinson's Disease. The cause of the dopamine cells dieing is unknown.

This chronic disease gradually gets worse as time goes on, and it produces three main effects: bradykinesia, tremor, and rigidity. Some other effects of Parkinson's are: A shuffling walk, a soft, slow monotone voice, and an expressionless mask. No two cases of Parkinson's are the same.

Medication and surgery are the treatments for this disease. The medication, Levodopa, which converts to dopamine, is stored within the brain cells until needed by the body for movement. Amantadine is used mostly with the Levodopa. The surgical options available are: lesioning and deep brain stimulation.

The on-going research to find the cause and a cure for the disease is drug research, gene therapy, stem cell research, and tissue implantation. Famous people like Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox have stepped forward to help with the research.