Parkinson’s disease is a neuro degenerative disorder that leads to shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with walking, balance, and coordination. Parkinson’s symptoms usually begin gradually and get worse over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking. Let’s see who are more prone to Parkinson’s disease? Statistics shows that Men are 1.5 times more likely to have Parkinson’s disease than women. About 10 million people have the condition now. Generally Incidence of Parkinson’s disease increases with age.
Causes for Parkinson’s disease are –
- Genetic Factors
- Environmental Factors
Genetic Factors: About 10 to 15 percent Parkinson’s patient is genetically involved.
Environmental Factor: some toxic chemicals or environmental factors inceases the chances of parkinson’s disease
Presence of Lewy body: Researcher believe that presence of Lewy bodies in brain cell may hold an important clue of parkinson’s disease
Risk factors for Parkinson’s disease include:
- Age. It ordinarily begins People around 60 or more usually develop the disease.
- Heredity. Parkinson’s disease morely depends on family history. The chances increases if any family member suffers from parkinson’s disease
- Sex. Men are more prone to develop Parkinson’s disease than are women.
- Exposure to toxins. Increasing exposure to herbicides and pesticides may slightly increase your risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Clinical features of Parkinson’s disease include:
Early signs of parkinson’s disease may be mild and go unnoticed. Symptoms often begin on one side of body then symptoms begin to affect both sides.
- Tremor
- Slowed movement (bradykinesia)
- Rigid muscles
- Impaired posture and balance
- Loss of automatic movements
- Speech changes
- Writing changes
Complications of Parkinson disease are
- Dementia
- Depression
- Emotional changes
- Breathing difficulty
- Eating problem
- Sleep disturbance
- Irritated bowel bladder syndrome
Diagnosis:
Diagnosis of Parkinson disease mainly depends on clinical history and radio imaging such as-
- MRI
- DAT Scan
- CT scan
The patient gives history like –
- Tremor
- Muscle spasm
- Joint stiffness
- Restricted movement
- Brady kinesia
- Sleep disturbance
- Tremor
- Slowed movement (bradykinesia)
- Rigid muscles
- Impaired posture and balance
- Loss of automatic movements
- Speech changes
- Writing changes
Treatment: Treatment procedure for parkinson’s disease includes-
- Levodopa
- Dopamine Agonists
- COMT Inhibitors
- Selegiline
- Anticholinergic medications
- Amantadine
- Surgery
Physiotherapy treatments: Physiotherapy treatment mainly depends on patient sypmtoms.it can’t cure the disease but prevent further progression and help the patient to lead an active and healthy life.Physiotherapist will apply two types of treatments. Such as-
Manual therapy:
- Amplitude Training. A specific form
of physical therapy for Parkinson’s disease is called LSVT BIG training.
- Myofascial release
- Reciprocal Patterns. Reciprocal
movements are side-to-side and left-to-right patterns, such as swinging your arms while taking steps as you walk.
- Balance Work.
- Stretching and Flexibility exercise
- Strength Training.
- Neurodynamic solution
Electrotherapy:
Electrotherapy mainly used for pain relieving and a physiotherapist can apply some equipment for this condition. Such as:
- UST
- IRR
- TENS
- ESWT (if the pain condition is chronic)
To deliver a patient well treatment, it’s important to provide your patients with information and education because good communication and sharing information are as important as delivering an intervention. Parkinson’s disease can be managed by healthy life style, regular follow up under neuro specialist, physiotherapist to prevent further progression and minimise symptoms.