Observations: My Uncle Developed Parkinson's Disease

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#1 Make Observations: My Uncle developed Parkinson’s disease and it has had a huge impact on his life as well as his family’s lives. I became interested in this topic because I would like to have a better understanding of what he is going through.
#2 Question: What causes Parkinson’s disease?
#3 Hypothesis: I know that muscles control body movements and I know that Parkinson’s makes it harder to move. I also know that muscles need protein to work correctly. I hypothesize that people who have Parkinson’s disease do not create enough protein for their muscles to function properly.
#4 Make Predictions: If people who have Parkinson’s are not producing protein then they do not have the essential amino acids needed. Therefore,
…show more content…
Lewy bodies are certain cells that show signs of Parkinson’s.
• Alpha-synuclein is inside Lewy bodies and researches think it has to do with Parkinson’s. It is important because all of the Lewy bodies that cannot be broken down have this protein inside of it.
• Men and older people are more likely to obtain Parkinson’s disease.
From this site: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/parkinsons_disease/detail_parkinsons_disease.htm
• Parkinson’s impacts many parts of the brain, but it has the largest effect on the substantia nigra. This part of the brain is by the base of the brain.
Dopamine is created in this area. After the dopamine is created it goes to the next part of the brain termed corpus striatum which is creates movement that is steady and continuous.
• Without dopamine it causes the movement function to deteriorate.
• It takes a while for symptoms to appear. Over half of the cells that make dopamine are gone before any symptoms present themselves.
• Parkinson’s disease has also been linked to nerves. People with this disease have less nerve endings.
• Nerve endings are responsible for making norepinephrine which transmits signals to the sympathetic nervous

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