What is Parkinson's disease ?
Who Gets Parkinson's Disease?
Parkinson's Disease affects mostly older adults, with about 90%
of the known cases diagnosed in people over the age of 60.
Within that population, there is some variance, with risk
increasing from age 60 through age 75, then dropping off
sharply.
Currently, Parkinson's Disease is known to affect about 3% of
the population over the age of 65. Using current statistics and
aging of the population, experts predict that will double in the
next 40 years.
Some 15% of those between the ages of 60 and 74 have been
diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Between the ages of 75 and
84, that percentage rises to about 30%.
However, when you look at it in terms of onset of symptoms, the
picture changes. Less than 10% of new cases of Parkinson's
disease are diagnosed in younger adults - under age 40.
The bulk of new diagnoses of Parkinson's disease are made
between the ages of 60 and 75. After age 85, the risk of
developing Parkinson's Disease seems to drop off dramatically.
Gender
Men seem to be at higher risk of developing Parkinson's Disease
than women. Men face about twice the risk of developing
Parkinson's Disease as women in every age group. Scientists
think that estrogen may play a role in protecting the body from
the chemical changes that happen in Parkinson's Disease.
Women who've had hysterectomies have a slightly higher rate of
Parkinson's Disease, and women who've had estrogen replacement
therapy have a lower rate of Parkinson's Disease than other
women their age.
Men are more prone to rigidity and tremor, and women more at
risk for gait disturbance and shuffling.
Ethnicity
Caucasians have a higher risk of developing Parkinson's Disease
than either African Americans or Asian Americans. Those of
European descent seem most prone to typical Parkinson's Disease,
but some studies suggest that non-Caucasians may be more at risk
for a particular type of non-typical parkinsonism that causes a
disturbance in thinking.
Heredity
In a small percentage of cases, family history may play a role
in the onset of Parkinson's Disease. People who have parents or
brothers and sisters who had young-onset Parkinson's Disease, in
which symptoms develop before the age of 40, are more likely to
develop Parkinson's Disease than others their age. When
Parkinson's Disease was diagnosed at older ages, family history
seems to play no part.
Coffee Drinkers
Caffeine also seems to have a protective effect against
Parkinson's Disease. A study of Japanese-American men showed
that those who regularly drank coffee ran a lower risk of
developing Parkinson's Disease than other men their age. The
more coffee they consumed, the lower the risk.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that
results from the destruction of dopamine-producing cells in the
midbrain area. Dopamine is a chemical that helps the brain
communicate with the muscles of the body.
In patients with Parkinson's, chemical changes in an area of the
brain known as the 'substantia nigra" affect the ability of
those cells to produce dopamine, affecting the ability of the
brain to communicate with the muscles. The symptoms of
Parkinson's generally appear when 80% of those cells are dead.
The disease is progressive and degenerative, which means that
the symptoms will get worse as the disease takes more and more
of those important cells. In addition to those changes,
scientists have also noted that there are changes in other parts
of the brain's communication system.
Those changes include changes to the areas of the brain that
control the emotions, sensory processes and maternal instincts.
So far, scientists aren't certain if those changes are caused
directly by Parkinson's, or if they're an effect of the loss of
dopamine and the changes in the way that the brain communicates
with the body.
Parkinson's was first officially described by the British
physician, Dr. James Parkinson, for whom it is named. In his
"Essay on the Shaking Palsy", he described a condition whose
symptoms were Involuntary tremolous motion, with lessened
muscular power...........
The essay went on to detail the types of tremors and associated
symptoms that he'd seen in his practice. In the 1850s,
Jean-Martin Charcot added 'rigidity' to Parkinson's list of
symptoms and first named it as 'Parkinson's Disease'.
Parkinson's original description is remarkably accurate, and
remains the basis for the modern diagnosis of Parkinson's
Disease.
In general, it is agreed that Parkinson's is one of the most
common neurological diseases affecting adults over the age of
65. Diagnoses of Parkinson's Disease in adults between the ages
of 40 and 65 has increased in the past few decades, though as
yet there is no attributable cause. Because of its relatively
slow progress, a person diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease may
live another 40-50 years, with increasing disability.
How many will get Parkinson's Disease ?
- One person in every 200 will be diagnosed with Parkinson's
Disease in their lifetime.
- One out of every 100 people over 60 in the United States will
be diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.
- There are over 50,000 new diagnosed cases of Parkinson's in
the United States every year.
- There are 2.500-5,000 cases of Parkinson's diagnosed in adults
under the age of 40 every year in the United States.
- Parkinson's Disease was responsible for 15,600 deaths in the
year 2,000. That's a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 persons in the
general population.
- In adults over the age of 65, the death rate from Parkinson's
Disease rises to 43.6 per 100,000.
- Parkinson's Disease was responsible for the deaths of 300
adults under the age of 65 in the year 2000.
- In 1999, approximately 9 percent of men and 4.3 percent of
women admitted to nursing homes were diagnosed with Parkinson's
Disease. - An average of 239,000 adults with Parkinson's Disease
are admitted to hospitals each year.
- Approximately 1% of the U.S. population over the age of 65 is
diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.
- A survey presented in the British Medical Journal in the year
2000 suggested that the true prevalence of Parkinson's Disease
in the UK is approximately 200 per 100,000 - about 2%.
- The prevalence of Parkinson's Disease in the United States and
Canada is estimated to be about 300 per 100,000 people, or about
3%.
- The Center for Disease Control estimates that as many as 40%
of all cases may be undiagnosed.
- Parkinson's is the second most common degenerative disease
that affects the nervous system throughout the world. The most
common is also age-related Alzheimer's Disease. More people are
affected with Parkinson's Disease than with Muscular Dystrophy,
Multiple Sclerosis and Lou Gehrig's Disease combined.
- Because of the increased life expectancy, most government
medical bodies believe that the prevalence of Parkinson's
Disease will rise astronomically in the coming decades.
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