Friends with middle-aged and elderly people at home will always pay attention to the various physical conditions of the elderly habitually, for example, whether coughing phlegm, whether headache and fever and so on. Once these situations, the family will be nervous, fearing that the elderly will have any major health problems.
Today we are talking about although it is not a headache and fever such a common problem, but it is also a common disease of middle-aged and elderly people, it is called Parkinson’s disease. Compared to Alzheimer’s disease, many people may still be relatively unfamiliar with Parkinson’s, which also makes many patients do not get formal treatment in time and lead to deterioration of the condition.
This article focuses on a brief description of this disease, which I hope will be helpful.
Parkinson’s, also known as tremor paralysis, is a neuropathic systemic degenerative disease commonly seen in middle-aged and elderly people, with an average age of onset of about 55 years old, mostly seen after the age of 60 years, and relatively rare before the age of 40 years. The overall prevalence of the disease in people over 65 years old in China is 170/100,000. In addition, there is a gender characteristic of this disease, with men being slightly more common than women.
The main pathological change of Parkinson’s is the degeneration and death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain, which leads to a significant decrease in the striatal dopamine content and causes the disease. Parkinson’s is associated with genetic factors, environmental factors, ageing, etc., but the exact cause of the disease is not clear to scientists.
There are two main clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s, namely motor and non-motor symptoms.
The core motor symptoms of Parkinson’s are tremor, bradykinesia and muscle tone. Although “postural instability” is often mentioned, this symptom usually occurs later in the course of the disease and is therefore not included in the diagnostic criteria for Parkinson’s band.
Rest tremor is often the first symptom of Parkinson’s, usually starting at the distal end of one upper limb, appearing or becoming obvious in the resting position, decreasing or stopping with random movements, increasing with tension or excitement, and disappearing after sleep. Typical manifestation is a “pill rolling” motion between the thumb and the flexed digit.
Bradykinesia is a slowing of movement and a decrease in amplitude or speed during sustained movement. It can occur in several parts of the body, such as the voice, face, and limbs. It is characterized by a decrease in random movements and slow, clumsy movements.
Myotonia i.e. passive slowness of the major joints of the limbs and neck when the patient is in the relaxed position.
Postural balance disorder is a sense of equilibrium and a tendency to fall due to impaired CNS-mediated posture. As the disease progresses, the patient may experience a gradual decrease and slowing of stride, with gait disturbances particularly noticeable during initiation and turning, and difficulty in rising from a seated or recumbent position.
In addition to motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms are also common and important clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s and can occur before or after the onset of motor symptoms. The main manifestations are sensory deficits, psychiatric disorders, autonomic dysfunction and sleep disorders.
The most common sensory disorders mainly include decreased sense of smell, pain or numbness; the most common mental disorders include depression and/or anxiety, hallucinations, cognitive impairment or dementia, etc.; autonomic dysfunction mainly includes upright hypotension, constipation, dysphagia, sweating, etc.; sleep disorders involve 55%-80% of the patients, mainly including insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, etc..
Although this disease is currently treated with medication and surgery, both treatments can only improve the patient’s symptoms, and cannot stop the progression of the disease, much less cure it. Therefore, friends must pay attention to any advertisement that promotes the ability to cure Parkinson’s disease is not to be trusted.
Here also reminds the family with middle-aged and elderly friends, must pay more attention to the elderly whether the above symptoms, once suspected, please be sure to regular hospitals to find a doctor, early diagnosis, and early treatment.
