Parkinson's Awareness Month: 30 Days-30 Stories/Day Seven-What Is Parkinson's
We start the second week of Parkinson's Awareness Week. If you've been reading so far, you may have some question. Let's begin...
1. What is Parkinson's Disease? Parkinson's is a disease of the central nervous system. Basically it results from the death of dopamine-generating cells in your brain. The most common symptoms are tremors and balance problems. I'll talk more about symptoms tomorrow.
2. How does someone get Parkinson's? I don't know and no else does, either. There's some thought about exposure to pesticides. Others think it's heredity. No one knows for sure.
3. How is Parkinson's diagnosed? There isn't one single test. A lot of it is trial and error. In some cases, you'll be given Parkinson's medication and they'll see if that alleviates some symptoms.
4. Is Parkinson's curable? Nope, not yet. There's different meds that can keep the symptoms controllable. People also use alternative medicine techniques. In some cases surgery is needed. All those things just ease the symptoms and pain. Nothing permanent.
5. What else should I know? Most people with PD are 60 and older. One thing about PD is a lot of the symptoms are also signs of the aging process. That makes it even tougher to diagnose.
6. So Howie...why did it take a week to write about the basics? A couple of reasons....I wanted to start with some interesting stories to hook you in...yanno to keep you reading and coming back. But most of all because you can find that information elsewhere and from people who are much more technical than me. Just Google Parkinson's and you'll find thousands of sites and stories.
I'll tell you this....there are a lot of sad, heartbreaking stories in the Parkinson's world. I try to keep it as light as possible because it's hard to read that day after day. Hell, I couldn't write that every day. I'd need all kinds of meds and therapy.
Tomorrow- Symptoms, meds and side effects