What are the new discoveries about Parkinsons symptoms?
In recent years scientists have found that Parkinson’s is much more than a disease of shaking limbs. “When I started my residency, this was a very simple disease,” recalls Dr. William Langston. “A number of cells die in a small area of the brain that made a chemical called dopamine. When they died, you had no more dopamine. Without dopamine, it’s difficult to move. … And that’s the way we diagnosed it. When dopamine’s down, you got rigid, you developed a tremor, gait became slowed and shuffling, etc. Any neurologist can diagnose that.” But now, says Langston, “At this point in time, we know that Parkinson’s is a much more complicated disorder. Many different areas of the brain can be affected. It probably evolves in a very specific order, starting in the low brain stem and then eventually affecting other areas, including the nigra, which causes Parkinsonism [the tremors]. But all of these other areas of the brain that are affected can also cause symptoms.” These newly-recognized symp
