Parkinson’s disease symptoms you should know

One of the earliest Parkinson’s disease symptoms is an involuntary tremor of a limb. The tremor is usually most pronounced when the body and the limb is at rest.

Generally, the disease is first diagnosed when the person concerned develops an uncontrollable tremor in a limb when they are resting in bed. The affected body part may be a leg, an arm, a foot or a hand. Generally, Parkinson’s disease symptoms manifest only on one side of the body in the initial stages.

In fact, it may be many years before symptoms are evident in more than one limb.

Disease progression can vary quite widely from one person to another. Here is a list of some of the most common signs of Parkinson’s disease. Please bear in mind that many of these symptoms are common with those of other diseases — having one or more of these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean that one has Parkinson’s.

Tremors
It is estimated that about 70% of sufferers experience tremors in the initial stages of the disease. While hand and foot tremors on one side of the body are quite common, some may experience tremors in the face or the jaw, though the latter two are less common.

Patients often describe these tremors are a beating or an oscillating movement. They are called resting tremors because they usually show up only when the patient is at rest.

The tremors frequently stop when the person moves the affected limb, although it resumes when the patient goes back to rest. The tremors on the side of the body that was originally affected tend to be worse than tremors on the other side of the body, even when the disease progresses.

Rigidity
Resting tremors are one of the main Parkinson’s disease symptoms; as a result, the muscles get no rest at all. Normally, muscles stretch during movement and relax while at rest. With Parkinson’s, the muscles are constantly in a state of movement. Therefore, muscles become stiff and inflexible.

The result is a significantly decreased range of movement. The patient often shows an inability to swing their arms and legs freely. Muscle tightness causes cramps and pain.

Bradykinesia
The term bradykinesia means ‘slow movement’. Slowness in body movements is a common symptom of Parkinson’s disease.

The patient also complains of difficulty in initiating movements as well as in completing movements. Those who have bradykinesia tend to walk with shuffling, short steps. This type of movement is known as festination.

Apart from affecting the limbs, bradykinesia can affect the facial muscles. In such cases, the patient shows only a limited range of facial expressions and movements. It is almost as if he or she is wearing a mask that does not change expression.

Postural instability
The ability to balance and coordinate movements is impaired in those with Parkinson’s disease symptoms. This results in postural instability, which increases the risks of falling down while standing or walking.

These patients also complain of being unable to make quick movements or turns. In fact, many experience a feeling of being frozen to one spot, where they are unable to initiate the process of walking.

Because the slowness of movements and lack of coordination also affect the ability to talk and to swallow food, the patient may face communication difficulties as well as nutritional deficiencies due to inadequate food consumption.

These Parkinson’s disease symptoms are caused by the deficiency of a chemical called dopamine in the brain. Dopamine deficiency makes it difficult for chemical / electrical messages to pass through the brain’s neural pathways. These messages are interrupted, which causes the slowness in movement and other symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

The sad part is that this disease is usually not diagnosed till about four-fifths of the dopamine in the brain is destroyed. At that stage, it is very difficult to stop the disease as compared to when only a small quantity of dopamine has vanished.

That being the case, it is important to be aware of common Parkinson’s disease symptoms — early detection certainly helps in slowing the progression of this distressing condition.