Parkinson’s disease is a type of progressive neurological disorder, which erodes the control of any person over their speech and body movements. With the passage of time, Parkinson’s patients deal with rigidity and stiffness in their legs and arms, lack of movement, slowness and walking difficulties, along with tremors in their legs, arms, hands face or jaw.
Parkinson’s disease often starts with various movement or motor symptoms. A few people may observe a shaking or tremor on a particular side of the human body, usually in hands while taking rest or in lap. Moreover, you will experience stiffness and slowness, along with other common symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease.
In some of the individuals dealing with the problem, the symptoms become worse on a particular side of their bodies. In addition, Parkinson’s disease patients and their family members usually observe soft voice and relatively less facial expression. Each patient, dealing with Parkinson’s disease is different and a particular person may not have every symptom of the disease.
What Are The Long-Term Effects Of Parkinson’s Disease?
As the problem proceeds gradually with time, Parkinson’s disease patients may experience many other symptoms, while at the same time, face trouble in balance and walking after they deal with the Parkinson’s disease for a few years.
Parkinson’s disease becomes worse gradually and individuals may experience another symptom called freezing of gait. According to this symptom, a person feels as freezing of his feet within the floor. People suffering from Parkinson’s disease may even experience non-movement or non-motor symptoms. For instance, such patients have a common problem of constipation.
A few patients may deal with urinary problems, while half of the patients deal with depression and anxiety. Later on, difficulties associated with thinking and memory become common. On the other side, both non-movement and movement symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease progress slowly with time.
With the passage of time, degree or extent of any person’s motor disability never tends to increase. This means, symptoms interfere with individual’s daily activities after approximately 10 years to 15 years of their illnesses.
Advancement in Parkinson’s disease
With the progress of Parkinson’s disease with time, symptoms associated with the problem become worse typically and many new problems emerge. Despite patients receive benefits with the intake of anti-Parkinson medication; the benefit fails to last for a long time even when they intake it frequently.
Most of the patients usually experience involuntary movements to make them, as looking fidgety when they intake the medicine and otherwise works the best. Hence, it is very much essential to emphasize such movements typically and do not bother about the condition of patients too much.
Other problems, which may take place with the progress of Parkinson’s disease, are-
- Problems associated with balance and gait, along with falls
- Difficulty in communication or impairment of speech
- Difficulty in swallowing
- Weight loss
- Cognitive impairment, such as memory and thinking
- Behavioral problems
- Autonomic problems, such as difficulty in sexual function and urination
- Light-headedness.
Some of the problems are of very much difficult to treat with medicines. However, any experienced doctor or a neurologist specializes in movement disorder will still may provide the necessary support and guidance for patients even during the advanced phases of the Parkinson’s disease.
Drugs to Treat Parkinson’s Disease
Study conducted by medical researchers have compared two drugs named Levodopa and Pramipexole, which is employed generally as the first treatment line associated with the parkinson’s disease problem. These drugs use various mechanisms to counteract with declining in the dopamine production in human brain, which is a result of progressive cell loss to secrete neuro chemicals in human brain. Levodopa is a type of amino acid, which human body metabolizes to form dopamine. On the other side, Pramipexole is a type of dopamine agonist, which binds with dopamine receptors present on cells in human brain and mimics the molecular function associated with the chemical.
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