Parkinson’s – A Disease Divulged
You never expect it will happen to you. When it does, your whole world seems to start spinning in a different direction. One morning, as I was getting ready for school, my mom came downstairs in a mess of tears, and through sobs told me that her brother had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Even though I wasn’t really sure what Parkinson’s disease was at the time, I was still devastated by the news. A very close family member of mine had been diagnosed with a disease.
As devastating as this new was in the beginning, I needed to find a way to cope. I couldn’t spend every time with my uncle feeling bad about his diagnosis. Five years later, I put his diagnosis behind me and treat my uncle the same as I had before. We still joke around just as often and dance around the kitchen at my grandparents’ house. Every now and then his hand will shake with a tremor and I am reminded of the disease, but he is luckily still functioning at full capacity.
For my generation (young adults), Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s actions are before our time. Therefore, we are not as aware of the disease or what it entails. So for those who aren’t aware, this is what researchers and doctors believe is at the root of Parkinson’s.
Alpha-synuclein and Lewy Bodies
In the brain region called the substantia nigra, neurons get a buildup of misfolded proteins. The substantia nigra is a location in the brain that holds a considerable amount of the brain’s dopamine.
When a specific protein called alpha-synuclein gets phosphorylated, it isn’t able to get broken down. In Parkinson’s disease, alpha-synuclein is hyperphosphorylated causing them to aggregate. These aggregations are then called Lewy bodies. A bunch of Lewy bodies in a neuron cause the neuron to die and a loss of dopamine. Interestingly, it seems that most of these problems affect the communication between intent of movement and the actual movement. This causes the patient to have slowed and rigid movements and tremors.
Although this disease spreads throughout the body over time and can even lead to death, depending on the degree of severity and treatment, it can take several years for it to become a negative impact on daily routines. The current treatment for Parkinson’s is the use of a drug called L-dopa. This drug helps to reintroduce dopamine in the substantia nigra, helping the signal for movement to be improved, which in turn reduces symptoms. Doctors actually will prescribe a patient a high dose of L-dopa to diagnose Parkinson’s. If the patients symptoms decrease, the diagnoses is considered confirmed.
You never expect it will happen to you. A diagnosis of someone that is close to you will have a tremendous effect on your life, but learning about a disease and how to cope with it will not allow the disease to hinder your relationship. So for now, I will keep on dancing with my uncle in the middle of my grandparents’ kitchen as long as I can. Parkinson’s will not take that away from us.
Brain image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/30/4e/ba/304eba7a5b82d65d8b1b43242343e44b.jpg
Parkinson’s – a Disease Divulged
