Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting over 1 million people in the United States alone.
Parkinson’s disease is named after James Parkinson, who in 1817 wrote about the condition he called ‘the shaking palsy’.
The disease affects the part of the brain that makes a chemical messenger (dopamine) that helps to tell the muscles what to do.
Dopamine is a chemical that has a range of functions around the body but has an especially important role as a neurotransmitter in the brain.
Dopamine is stored in vesicles in the end of a nerve process and the arrival of an electrical signal down that nerve fiber leads to the vesicles of dopamine release.
It is a slowly progressive disease of the brain. Although it mainly affects mobility, it can also affect emotions, thinking, communicating and bodily functions – (including those of the bowel and bladder).
Parkinson’s disease
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