Little Lessons On Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that usually starts past the age of 60

, and affects around 1% of the population this age and older. It is thus the second most important neurodegenerative disease in terms of incidence, after Alzheimer. They have some things in common: for one, in both diseases patients' brains show pathological structures called neurofibrillary tangles, definitory in Alzheimer and usual in Parkinson's cases. Also, the most common and known symptom of the first, dementia, affects patients with advanced parkinsonism.

Most Parkinson cases have no known cause, but about 5% are due do issues with some specific genes. As we all know by know, genes are the instruction manual that our body continuously reads to function properly, and any change in its information can lead to physiological problems. In Parkinson's disease, whether by misleading genetical information or other causes, brain dopamine cells start to die. Dopamine is one of the major neurotransmitters -endochemicals used by neurons to communicate- that are continuously operating in our central nervous system, together with serotonin, norepinephrin and acetylcholine. When dopamine cells die, we obviously have less dopamine, and some symptoms arise, especially related to movement: tremor, difficulties with walking, rigidity, slowness, and gait issues.

In terms of brain structures involved, the dopamine cells death found in Parkinson's disease relate to the substantia nigra, which is in turn part of another structure called basal ganglia. Our nervous system is a hugely complex interconnected system, composed by thousands of circuits. Well, the basal ganglia are the most affected area in this disorder, and they are part of the motor, oculo-motor, limbic, associative and orbitofrontal circuits. Interconnection means that the functioning of these circuits is also affected.

The nervous system is an incredibly vital and complex field of study. Results and findings in brain sciences usually derive from animal experimentation first, and if possible, clinical trials with humans come later. They are costly, and tend to be published in professional and academic media. Little information reaches the average person, and it is not always easy to grasp because of difficult terminology and lack of explanations. Many recent and interesting findings (e.g. in the deep brain stimulation field, where electricity helps creating new brain cells, thus enhancing cognitive functions) sound like science-fiction, if they ever reach us through the media. Well, many of our elders are not even familiar with the role of electricity in our nervous system -neither many of us!

In this, as in every other health-related niche, health professionals and other interested parties should pay greater care to making scientific knowledge and progress widely available. This would very likely contribute to increase social demand for certain procedures or interventions, and the market would surely toil to make them available.

by: Maria Gonzales

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