The affect Parkinson’s disease plays in the body is troubling. It affects nearly one percent of the adult population over sixty years old. Each year in the Untied States, there are sixty thousand new cases alone. Close to one million Americans live with its disabling grip, this is more than the collective number of patients affected by multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease and muscular dystrophy ("Statistics on Parkinson's"). Parkinson’s is a gradual disease that affects the central nervous system, which weakens the motor function and leads to cognitive impairment. Some of the interesting topics surrounding Parkinson’s are signs-symptoms, pathology and etiology.
Some of the earlier signs one may notice in a Parkinson’s patient are achy muscles, fatigue, muscle weakness and less impulsive …show more content…
As such the more evident signs would include tremors, in which one’s hand that will shake reluctantly, in conjunction with a pill rolling motion displayed in the fingers. As the disease progression continues the tremors can be noticed on both sides of the body, and can affect the hands, feet, face, lips and tongue. Motor impairment becomes more evident as the patient struggles with daily tasks (VanMeter, Hubert, & Gould, 2014). For example a patient sitting at rest would struggle making the initial movement to get up. Once standing they now struggle with initiating the first step. This displays the difficulty of any initial movement and it’s slowness. Similarly walking characteristics include the loss of natural arm swing, which is no longer apparent. The patient’s walking posture has become altered. They are stooped over with slow, short shuffling steps, arms that are flexed at the elbow and the hips and knees are slightly flexed as well (VanMeter et al., 2014).
Some of the earlier signs one may notice in a Parkinson’s patient are achy muscles, fatigue, muscle weakness and less impulsive …show more content…
As such the more evident signs would include tremors, in which one’s hand that will shake reluctantly, in conjunction with a pill rolling motion displayed in the fingers. As the disease progression continues the tremors can be noticed on both sides of the body, and can affect the hands, feet, face, lips and tongue. Motor impairment becomes more evident as the patient struggles with daily tasks (VanMeter, Hubert, & Gould, 2014). For example a patient sitting at rest would struggle making the initial movement to get up. Once standing they now struggle with initiating the first step. This displays the difficulty of any initial movement and it’s slowness. Similarly walking characteristics include the loss of natural arm swing, which is no longer apparent. The patient’s walking posture has become altered. They are stooped over with slow, short shuffling steps, arms that are flexed at the elbow and the hips and knees are slightly flexed as well (VanMeter et al., 2014).