Hyderabad: With World Parkinson’s Day being observed on April 11, it is pertinent to understand how the disease affects people and methods to prevent it.
World Parkinson’s Day
Every year, April 11 is observed as World Parkinson’s Day. The day aims to amplify awareness and understanding about Parkinson’s disease worldwide.
What is Parkinson’s disease?
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that causes movement problems, including tremors, rigidity, and balance issues. It’s also associated with mental health issues, sleep problems, and pain.
Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
Addressing the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, Hyderabad-based neurosurgeon, Dr Rajesh Alugolu from Yashoda hospital said, “Tremor is the most common symptom which patients usually present with, rigidity and slowness of the movement.”
Apart from these, the patients may also have multiple system problems at the initial stage. This may include not getting a good sleep, constipation and general fatigue. “As the disease progresses, patients may find it difficult to do their routine work. In some cases, when the patient signs documents, the signature may vary as the handwriting changes,” the neurosurgeon told Siasat.com.
Speaking of the evolution of symptoms, the doctor said, “It depends upon person to person, the symptoms worsen gradually. At a point, the patient may start getting depressed, rigid or even not able to walk.” Patients are put on anti-Parkinsonian medication.
Parkinson’s disease is a disorder wherein dopamine is not produced by the brain. The stiffness of the body causes energy consumption. In this case,a certain medication which acts like dopamine is used. Such medication has side effects.
As the disease progresses, the duration of the effects of medication also decreases. Patients may also experience fluctuations after taking medication. These side effects could be mental and motor. “Once the medication is started, the tremors may stop, but the patient may experience dancing-like movements.”
Mental side effects include hallucinations and pathological issues.
Deep brain stimulation
Addressing a query on managing Parkinson’s disease, the doctor said, “Deep brain stimulation refers to the placement of electrodes inside the brain to stimulate nuclei with electrical current provides stimulations like dopamine.” The stimulation helps reduce medication by almost 50 percent.
There is a major risk of brain stroke during a surgery; however, with technological advances, such incidents are being reduced.
Parkinson’s is not limited to the elderly
Parkinson’s disease is not restricted to elderly people as in the past. It is gradually affecting young people, some of them as young as 24 years, who may be affected with advanced Parkinson’s disease. Once a person is affected with Parkinson’s disease, they can’t recover completely.
Misconceptions regarding Parkinson’s
Shedding light on common misconceptions regarding Parkinson’s disease, Dr Mohammad Shuja Uzzaman Bilal, a neurologist from Apollo Hospital, said, “Firstly, when someone presents with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, people attribute it to some tragedy that may have occurred recently. The disease is also wrongly attributed to a reduction in diet.”
Some people generally attribute Parkinson’s disease to age, this is not actually true because in some countries, people work out and remain physically active until the age of 90 years, too. “If there is a family history of Parkinson’s, they could opt for genetic testing. Diet and exercise, along with sleep, may help prevent the disease,” the doctor explained.
Stressing on diet, the doctor suggested cutting down on sugar intake, junk food and maintaining of sleep cycle for preventing Parkinson’s disease. The neurologist suggested organic food for the prevention of the disease.
“It is better to keep the brain active by being busy in activities which patients like to do, including those which require thinking,” the doctor said while addressing a query on mental exercises.
Treatment for Parkinson’s disease
Speaking of treatment for Parkinson’s disease, Dr Shakeeb Ahrar, a consultant neurophysician from Glenfield Mallareddy Brain Heart hospitals, said, “Parkinson’s disease occurs due to a deficiency of dopamine hormone, which causes slowness of neurons and the patient also slows down.”
Increasing the level of dopamine through levodopa, the artificial form of dopamine and certain agents to increase the efficacy of the hormone. “In terms of surgical management, there is a risk of patients developing side effects of dopamine tablets. Deep Brain stimulation can helps activating substantia nigra, the part of brain which releases dopamine.”
