Neurology Medicine

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disease, rare before age 45, affecting 1.5% of the population over 65 years, reaching as many men as women. The fundamental lesion is the degeneration of a certain type of neurons: dopaminergic neurons.
These neurons produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter substance of the nervous system. It occurs particularly in terms of neurons responsible for controlling body movements. There in Parkinson’s disease dopamine deficiency in the brain and this is manifested by movement disorders.

Causes and risk factors
The cause of Parkinson’s disease is unknown. In very rare cases are hereditary, and in this case it is Parkinson’s disease occurring in very young individuals. Similarly no risk factor is known with certainty, including any food or infectious factor has been recognized.

The signs of the disease
The onset of the disease is insidious: reduced activity, abnormal fatigue, poorly localized pain, difficulty in writing, a hand tremor, stiffness fluctuation, etc…
Gradually, other signs of the disease will appear, these are mainly:

The akinesia (“slow” movements)
The akinesia is defined by scarcity, the difficulty of initiation, slowness of movement. It particularly affects the way: the starting is difficult, sometimes fidgeting, then with short steps, feet “glued” to the ground, his arms still not swinging well, back bent forward, stiff neck. The startup is paradoxically facilitated by the presence of an obstacle to the patient. Sometimes the blockage occurs after startup, the patient is then abruptly stopped, all of a sudden unable to move, feet glued to the ground: it is the phenomenon of jamming kinetics. The akinesia is often observed early in the writing, which becomes harder and smaller (known as micrography). The face is also affected, with features frozen, no expressive, a stare. The word is rare, poorly articulated, monotonous. All actions are rare and slow. The akinesia is responsible for a loss of automatic, unconscious, the patient must consciously control most of his movements, even those that occur without one thinks normally.
The hypertonic (stiffness)
Hyper tonicity is known as extrapyramidal type. This rigidity, stiffness of limbs and axis (the spine), which is found by mobilizing the joints of the patient, who asked to be more passive and more relaxed as possible. Then a resistance to involuntary mobilization (e.g. flexion-extension of the wrist), resistance disappears and reappears in spurts during the successive movement: the phenomenon of the gear. This rigidity tends to fix the members in the position imposed upon them.
Tremor
Tremor is common. He is a regular tremor, which typically appears at rest and disappears during movement and is sometimes found in maintaining an attitude (e.g. when the patient maintains his arms outstretched in front of him). It disappears during sleep and increases during emotional or effort of concentration as mental arithmetic. In the hands, it evokes a feeling of crumbling bread between your fingers. It can affect the face, with a trembling lip or chin.
The decrease in postural reflexes (balance disorders), which appears later than other signs.
The decrease of postural reflexes is responsible for balance disorders. It often comes after several years of evolution. It is typically responsible for falling behind; the patient loses the sense to “catch up” if it is unbalanced.
Other disorders are often associated in Parkinson’s disease:
Pain, often cramping or tingling unpleasant;
Digestive disorders (constipation) or urine (urinary urgency);
Postural hypotension (low blood when the patient stands up, dizziness or head falls);
Sleep disturbances (insomnia, somnolence);
Sweats, hot flashes, excessive salivation;