Parkinson: 10% of those affected are under 40 years
‘Doctor, I come because I shake his hand. I know I have Parkinson … “That’s how many people are often directly reaching the office of a physician or a neurologist. It happens that the trembling of the hands, especially after a certain age, between 55 and 65, begins to worry.
The reality is that not all earthquakes are associated with Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects 800,000 Argentines. There are drugs, for example, which can also cause the physical symptoms and have nothing to do with the disease.
That is why Argentina Neurological Society (SNA) dedicates the month of April to spread what it is exactly that bad yet no cure that affects certain parts of the nervous system and whose cause remains a mystery.
“There is no single explanation. There would be a genetic predisposition to disease and a combination with environmental factors. Those who have the disease before 40, which are 10% of patients, the group would be the most important would it be genetics, “said Dr. Cecilia Peralta, director of the Day Hospital Parkinson’s Disease Hospital César Milstein.
Both Peralta and the other members of the team responsible for creating, from the SNA, the first Argentine record of the disease in order to have national statistics on diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and access to these benefits stressed: “Today, in our country, receives rehabilitation for symptoms such as loss of balance or language impairment, for example, only 30-40% of patients. Among the causes of this situation, besides the lack of options to maintain the interest of patients, SNA specialists are agreed that the lack of coverage and medical ignorance. ”
“I have to know that the act of prescribing and my pen will impact the long-term evolution of a patient,” said Dr. Anabel Chade, Head of Adult Neurology Clinic and the Parkinson’s Disease and Related Neurological Institute Cognitive (INEC) and coordinator of Abnormal Movements Unit of the Favaloro Foundation.
Typical signs
But although the tremors are usually the most physical sign associated with Parkinson’s disease onset starts much earlier, with non-motor symptoms such as depression, combined with disorders such as constipation, sleep problems, partial loss of smell, anxiety and alteration of intestinal transit.
When earthquakes occur, experts estimate that the person has already lost 80% of neurons in the substantia nigra, a brain stem areas in which these cells produce dopamine to help regulate movement and coordination of the body. “Today, we are diagnosed when they lost 40-50% of these neurons,” said Peralta.
A study of 401 patients Argentines, 69% suffered from insomnia, depression and anxiety. Between 4 and 20 years after that first appear premotor phase physical symptoms: painful muscle stiffness, slow movements and tremor in one hand, usually right, “at rest, of medium intensity (between 4 and 6 Hz) and disappears during sleep, “summarized Dr. Tomoko Arakaki, Abnormal Movements of the Clinic Hospital Ramos Mejía.