Parkinson's+Disease+(PD)

=**- Parkinson's Disease (PD) -**=

Parkinson's disease is a brain disease/ condition which affects the body's motor system in which controls all the voluntary movement in the body, this means that this disease affects your movement and control of your body making it hard to control your body and the cause tremors. This disease was discovered, named by and described by Dr. James Parkinson (1755-1824) in his document called the 'Shaking Palsy' in the year 1817. The common and most regularly used name would just be Parkinson's disease, 'PD' for short, another more scientific name for this disease is called idiopathic Parkinson's.

**__Causes__**
The cause of Parkinson's disease is still not fully confirmed but for now the disease is said to be caused by damage to the neurons in a part of the brain called the Substantia nigra, it is **__not__** a contagious disease. The substantia nigra is the part of the brain which creates the chemical called dopamine which are used to send messages to another part of the brain which controls the muscle movement, therefore causing the problems.

Many factors are known to cause this damage. The factors include: age, certain drugs, genetics and environment.

Age is a factor because after a certain age, brain cells stop building and brain cells start to die, the older you get, the more brain cells you have lost. But since the development of modern medicine, people's life expectancy rose a lot but this means there is more time for brain cells to die. This is why mostly old people develop Parkinson's disease.

Genetics have also been known to pass on this disease through abnormalities that existed in the family but this has yet it is not very well known on how this disease is passed on.

Certain drugs which help relieve other mental illnesses or illegal drugs are also known to be the cause of this disease due to their side effects (damage of the substantia nigra).

Toxins in the air such as manganese, carbon monoxide, carbon disulfide and pesticides can all damage the brain which can lead to Parkinson's disease.


 * __Symptoms__**

Noticeable/ motor symptoms include tremors, slow body responses, and stiff muscles. //**Tremors**// are the uncontrolable constant shaking/shivering of the body because of the body's messed up motor system. //**Stiff muscles**// are also due to the messed up motor systems stressing out muscle groups and causing stiffness. //**Uncontrollable muscles**// are also due to messed up motor systems making the body physically respond the wrong way.
 * //Slow body responses//** is the delay in voluntary movement (a lot like the delay in digital devices) this makes it very hard to control the body which makes it very dangerous.



Non of these symptoms are hazardous by itself but have dangerous side effects due to uncontrollable muscles and slow body responses.

__**Cure/ Treatment**__
There is no cure whatsoever for Parkinson's disease **however** there are drugs and therapies which try to stabilize the disease such as replacing the dopamine in the body, drugs which stimulate the substantia nigra, the blocking of certain enzymes which decrease the amount of dopamine in the body and a drug (Levodopa) which increases the amount of dopamine produced by the brain and

**Reference**
http://www.healthcommunities.com/parkinsons-disease/overview-of-parkinsons.shtml http://www.scpdn.org/dr.-james-parkinson.html http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/parkinsons_disease/parkinsons_disease.htm#What_is http://pathology.mc.duke.edu/neuropath/nawr/motor-systems.html http://www.webmd.com/parkinsons-disease/parkinsons-causes http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005148.html http://www.scpdn.org/is-there-a-cure-for-parkinson's.html http://www.scpdn.org/what-causes-parkinsons.html http://www.scpdn.org/what-are-the-signs-and-symptoms.html