What Are The Symptoms Of Parkinson Disease
Parkinson disease symptoms usually start out mild, and then progressively get much worse. The first signs are often so subtle that many people dont seek medical attention at first. These are common symptoms of Parkinson disease:
- Tremors that affect the face and jaw, legs, arms, and hands
- Slow, stiff walking
Depression And Older Adults
Feeling down every once in a while is a normal part of life, but if these feelings last a few weeks or months, you may have depression. Read this article to find common signs and symptoms of depression, treatment options, and if you or your loved one may be at risk for depression.
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Polymorphism Of Cyp2d6 Gene And Pesticide Exposure
The CYP2D6 gene is primarily expressed in the liver and is responsible for the enzyme cytochrome P450 2D6. A study showed that those who had a mutation of this gene and were exposed to pesticides were twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s Disease those that had the mutation and were not exposed to pesticides were not found to be at an increased risk of developing PD the pesticides only had a “modest effect” for those without the mutation of the gene.
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How Is It Treated And Is There A Cure
For now, Parkinsons disease is not curable, but there are multiple ways to manage its symptoms. The treatments can also vary from person to person, depending on their specific symptoms and how well certain treatments work. Medications are the primary way to treat this condition.
A secondary treatment option is a surgery to implant a device that will deliver a mild electrical current to part of your brain . There are also some experimental options, such as stem cell-based treatments, but their availability often varies, and many aren’t an option for people with Parkinsons disease.
Diagnosis Of Parkinsons Disease
There are currently no blood or laboratory tests to diagnose non-genetic cases of Parkinsons. Doctors usually diagnose the disease by taking a persons medical history and performing a neurological examination. If symptoms improve after starting to take medication, its another indicator that the person has Parkinsons.
A number of disorders can cause symptoms similar to those of Parkinsons disease. People with Parkinsons-like symptoms that result from other causes, such as multiple system atrophy and dementia with Lewy bodies, are sometimes said to have parkinsonism. While these disorders initially may be misdiagnosed as Parkinsons, certain medical tests, as well as response to drug treatment, may help to better evaluate the cause. Many other diseases have similar features but require different treatments, so it is important to get an accurate diagnosis as soon as possible.
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Leading Possible Risk Factors For Parkinsons
Genetic factors
Scientists estimate that less than 10% of cases of Parkinsons disease are primarily due to genetic causes. The most common genetic effect that triggers Parkinsons disease is mutation in a gene called LRRK2. The LRRK2 defect is particularly frequent in families of North African or Jewish descent. Mutations in alpha-synuclein have also been found to trigger Parkinsons, but these are quite rare. In most cases, no primary genetic cause can be found.
Other risk factors
There are other things that put an individual at higher risk for developing Parkinsons. The main risk factor is age, because Parkinsons disease is most commonly found in adults over the age of 50 . Men also have a higher risk of Parkinsons disease than women. The actual links between any of these factors and Parkinsons disease are not completely understood.
What Causes Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological condition that mainly affects your body’s movement. The disease is progressive and has symptoms like tremors, slow movement, stiffness, and speech difficulty. Most people develop the disease around or after the age of 60. But 10% to 20% of people with Parkinson’s develop it at age 50 or younger. Men are more likely to develop this condition than women.
Parkinson’s symptoms are caused by a decrease in the cells in your brain that produce dopamine. It’s the lower dopamine levels that cause the movement-based symptoms of this disease.
Experts are not 100% sure what exactly causes this disease. They believe most cases of Parkinson’s don’t have one single cause but may have multiple components interacting with each other.
Genetics. Between 10% and 15% of all Parkinson’s cases are caused or influenced by at least 1 of 12 genetic mutations that can be passed down from a parent to a child.
Some of these gene mutations are more common in specific cultural groups. For example, Ashkenazi Jews and North African Berbers are more likely to have the G2019S mutation on the LRRK2 gene, which can cause Parkinson’s. However, even having a genetic tendency for Parkinson’s doesn’t mean you will get it. Studies show that only between 25% and 35% of people with the G2019S mutation will get Parkinson’s disease.
Head injury. People who have had a traumatic brain injury have a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s, but experts don’t know exactly why.
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Questions To Ask A Skilled Nursing Living Facility
Refer to the questions on the following pages for guidance. Try to make a second, unannounced visit in the evening or on a weekend. You may learn additional information that adds to your overall opinion of the facility. If you have specific questions about this process, contact our Helpline at 1-800-4PD-INFO .
*Please note that not all content is available in both languages. If you are interested in receiving Spanish communications, we recommend selecting both to stay best informed on the Foundations work and the latest in PD news.
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How Does Environment Come Into It
Your environment is a hard one to pin down. Partly, that’s because it covers a lot of ground. It’s everything that’s not your genes, which could mean where you live, what you eat, chemicals you’ve come into contact with, and more.
Not only that, but it could take years for the effects from something in your environment to show up. So far, doctors have a lot of clues but no smoking gun. So you could have people who live or work in an area around chemicals tied to Parkinson’s, but many of them don’t get it.
Some research shows links between Parkinson’s and:
- Agent Orange, a chemical used to destroy trees and crops in the Vietnam War.
- Certain chemicals used in farming, such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
- Some metals and chemicals used in factories, such as manganese, lead, and trichlorethylene .
These can come into play based on where you live, what you do for work, or if you served in the military. Sometimes, these chemicals seep into well water, so that’s one more way they can affect you.
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What Is Lewy Body Dementia Causes Symptoms And Treatments
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Lewy body dementia is a disease associated with abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain. These deposits, called Lewy bodies, affect chemicals in the brain whose changes, in turn, can lead to problems with thinking, movement, behavior, and mood. Lewy body dementia is one of the most common causes of dementia.
LBD affects more than 1 million individuals in the United States. People typically show symptoms at age 50 or older, although sometimes younger people have LBD. LBD appears to affect slightly more men than women.
Diagnosing LBD can be challenging. Early LBD symptoms are often confused with similar symptoms found in other brain diseases or in psychiatric disorders. Lewy body dementia can occur alone or along with other brain disorders.
It is a progressive disease, meaning symptoms start slowly and worsen over time. The disease lasts an average of five to eight years from the time of diagnosis to death, but can range from two to 20 years for some people. How quickly symptoms develop and change varies greatly from person to person, depending on overall health, age, and severity of symptoms.
In the early stages of LBD, symptoms can be mild, and people can function fairly normally. As the disease advances, people with LBD require more help due to a decline in thinking and movement abilities. In the later stages of the disease, they often depend entirely on others for assistance and care.
Talking With Friends And Family About Suicide
Its important to watch for signs and symptoms of depression or suicide. Dont shy away from asking if a family member or friend is feeling depressed or suicidal. It may be an uncomfortable conversation, but it is important. Asking if someone is having thoughts of suicide will not make them more likely to act on those thoughts. Your questions may help the person open up about how theyve been feeling and encourage them to seek treatment.
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How Does Parkinsons Kill You
Most of the patients that have Parkinsons disease do not die specifically from it. Please, allow me to explain better.
As it is an affection that compromises several organs, it may trigger inadequate responses in each one of them. Nonetheless, the same diseases that cause death on healthy patients cause death on these patients.
Parkinsons patients can die from heart attacks, strokes, cancer, among other causes. Still, two specific causes are very common in these patients.
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What Symptoms Can Be Expected In Advanced Pd
- Shortness of breath 54%
- Problems in swallowing 40%14
In an analysis of 339 death certificates and medical notes in the UK, pneumonia was found to be a terminal event in 45%.13
Caregiver distress with choking and the risk of choking to death is also mentioned in a separate study in to experiences regarding all stages of PD.4
In a survey of symptoms and their association with quality of life, in those patients with advanced disease, uncontrolled pain, anxiety and hallucinations were significantly associated with poor quality of life.9
Seizures are also noted in a description of the last phase of Parkinsonian syndromes,15 and in retrospective studies of PD patients overall.16,17
These above symptoms often occur on the background of weight loss, pain, and cognitive impairment. It is important therefore to note which medications given at the end of life may exacerbate these symptoms, and which should be considered in anticipation of them.
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What Can My Doctor Do To Treat Parkinsons Disease
There is no cure for Parkinsons, but your doctor can prescribe drugs to drastically reduce your symptoms. In the earliest stages of the disease, you may not need medications at all. As symptoms get a bit worse, your doctor may suggest selegiline, a drug that protects brain cells from damage. If used in the early stages of the disease, selegiline can delay the need for levodopa. And when prescribed in combination with levodopa, selegiline may slow the onset of disability. But eventually, all patients will need more serious medication to help them carry on their lives.
At some point, almost everyone with Parkinsons will take levodopa a drug seemingly capable of miracles. The brain converts levodopa into dopamine, thus replenishing the supply of this crucial compound as well as restoring, at least temporarily, long-lost physical abilities. You may remember levodopa from the movie Awakenings, which was based on a true story. With one shot of the drug, the character played by Robert DeNiro awoke from a long coma brought on by a Parkinsons-like disease.
For Parkinsons patients, the response to levodopa can be almost as dramatic. In some cases, the disease seems to disappear, at least temporarily. The drug can give a patient years of normal, productive living when they would have otherwise been disabled. Levodopa is especially useful for relieving slowness and stiffness, but it has a limited effect on tremors.
Medications And Parkinson’s Symptoms
Taking certain medicationsspecifically ones that block the action of dopaminecould cause Parkinson’s disease symptoms. It’s a condition called drug-induced parkinsonism, and while it isn’t Parkinson’s disease itself, it can look and feel a lot like it.
Here are some of the drugs that can cause Parkinson’s disease symptoms:
- Anti-nausea medications
- Drugs that treat hyperkinetic movement disorders
Keep in mind that even though these medications could cause symptoms similar to Parkinson’s, they don’t cause the disease itself. And most of the time, the symptoms go away within hours or days once you stop taking that drug, per the Parkinson’s Disease Society.
In some cases, the Parkinson’s symptoms don’t go away after a person stops taking the medication that led to them, and they’re eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers don’t think that the medication was the cause of Parkinson’s in those cases, but that those individuals’ dopamine levels were already depleted, and the side effects of the drugs revealed their underlying Parkinson’s disease. Put another way, the medication was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” according to the American Parkinson Disease Association.
Research on what causes Parkinson’s disease continues to grow. If you experience symptoms of Parkinson’s, such as a hand tremor, slowed movement, balance problems, or changes in your speech or writing, connect with a doctor to diagnose the condition.
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What Is Parkinsonism And What Causes It
Some people may develop Parkinson’s-like symptoms, including slow movement, muscle stiffness, or tremors, without having true Parkinson’s disease. Causes of parkinsonism include:
Medication. Certain medications, mainly antipsychotic prescriptions, induce symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. Luckily, the symptoms usually stop once you stop taking the medication.
Ministrokes. People with cerebrovascular disease may experience a series of ministrokes. The strokes cause multiple areas of the brain to become inactive, leading to the symptoms.
Progressive supranuclear palsy. Also called Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome, this condition mainly causes balance and vision issues but also has other symptoms similar to Parkinson’s.
Multiple system atrophy. This condition also has similar symptoms but also causes bladder issues and low blood pressure.
Corticobasal degeneration. This condition happens when a protein called tau doesn’t break down properly in the brain. It builds up and causes damage and neurological degeneration.
How Do I Take Care Of Myself
If you have Parkinsons disease, the best thing you can do is follow the guidance of your healthcare provider on how to take care of yourself.
- Take your medication as prescribed. Taking your medications can make a huge difference in the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. You should take your medications as prescribed and talk to your provider if you notice side effects or start to feel like your medications aren’t as effective.
- See your provider as recommended. Your healthcare provider will set up a schedule for you to see them. These visits are especially important to help with managing your conditions and finding the right medications and dosages.
- Dont ignore or avoid symptoms. Parkinsons disease can cause a wide range of symptoms, many of which are treatable by treating the condition or the symptoms themselves. Treatment can make a major difference in keeping symptoms from having worse effects.
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Understanding Related Conditions And Their Causes
Parkinsonism is a word used to cover not only Parkinsons disease, but also related conditions with similar symptoms, like tremors, rigid muscles or slow movement. The three main types of parkinsonisms and their causes are:
- Idiopathic Parkinsons disease the most common form of PD. Idiopathic means the cause is unknown.
- Vascular parkinsonism, also known as arteriosclerotic parkinsonism this form can develop in people with restricted blood flow to their brain. Following a mild stroke, some people may develop this form of parkinsonism.
- Drug-induced parkinsonism a small number of people may develop PD-related symptoms due to medication, particularly neuroleptic drugs like those used to treat schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. Fortunately, the symptoms rarely get worse and usually resolve within months of stopping the drug.
There are also some rarer conditions that fall within a category called atypical parkinsonisms or Parkinson-plus, which not only cause movement problems, but also other challenges. The four primary atypical parkinsonisms, each caused by the build-up of a particular protein in the brain, are multiple system atrophy , progressive supranuclear palsy , corticobasal syndrome and dementia with Lewy bodies .
The Role Of Nurses In Parkinsons Disease
Research has shown increasing specialization among nurses who care for patients with PD thus, knowledge of the pathophysiology of this disease is arguably an important starting point for vocational training . Based on this, we sought to hierarchically organize the major motor and nonmotor symptoms of PD using evidence gathered from the literature .
Figure 1.
Classification of the main motor and nonmotor symptoms in Parkinsons disease.
The symptoms of PD are divided into motor and nonmotor each of these classifications contains various other signs and symptoms related to both the neurodegenerative disease process itself as well as multifactorial causes. Thus, hierarchical organization of symptoms is not an easy task, and various descriptions have been proposed to facilitate understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease however, none of them have structured the symptoms into an organizational chart.
Our research on nursing diagnoses, outcomes, and interventions was based on this chart.
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