Synonyms
- Shaking paralysis
- Idiopathic Parkinson Syndrome
- Tremble
- Tremor Disease
- Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease or “Morbus Parkinson” owes its name to an English doctor. This doctor, James Parkinson, described the symptoms typical of the disease as early as the beginning of the 19th century, which he observed in several of his patients. He himself first gave the disease the name “shaking paralysis”. It was not until 100 years later that a link between the typical symptoms and changes in the brain, or more precisely in the midbrain, could be proven by appropriate brain examination.
Epidemiology
Overall, Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common diseases of the so-called “central nervous system“, i.e. the brain and the attached spinal cord. In Germany almost 250,000 people suffer from this disease. Typically, the disease occurs in older people in the 5th or 6th decade of life.
However, there are also very early forms of the disease, which can occur from the age of 30. What is actually the difference to Parkinson’s syndrome? – Learn all about Parkinson’s syndrome
Causes
Basics of the nervous system For a better understanding of a nervous disease such as Parkinson’s disease, the following will first outline some basics of the nervous system. The actual nervous system of the human body consists of 2 parts. On the one hand there is the brain with the attached spinal cord.
This part is called the so-called “central nervous system”. On the other hand there is a multitude of nerves that run through the whole body. This is called the so-called “peripheral nervous system”.
- Nerve ending (dendrite)
- Messenger substances, e.g. dopamine
- Other nerve ending (dendrite)
Both systems consist of individual nerve cells that are in contact with each other. The places where such contact occurs from one cell to another are called “synapses“. Here it is decided (similar to a border crossing) whether cell A “lets information through” to cell B.
This information is transmitted by so-called “messenger substances” (neurotransmitters). If a cell now receives an impulse, it passes this on with the help of the messenger substances. For this purpose, a certain messenger substance is released at the synapse, which attaches itself to the “neighboring synapse” like a key in a lock.
This triggers another impulse in the neighboring cell, which in turn causes a transmitter release at the next synapses. The actual impulses in the nerve cell are tiny electrical charges that pass through the nerve cell from one synapse to the next. Such a “data transmission” naturally works at breakneck speed.
All nerve cells are somehow connected to the large control organ “brain”. The brain itself is divided into different areas that perform certain functions (speech, vision, movement, etc.) If damage occurs in one of these areas, all neurons connected to this region are also affected.
The signals from the brain are conducted through the “peripheral nervous system” like through electric cables through the whole body. These cables are also responsible for the transmission of stimuli to the brain. (temperature, pain, touch, etc.
)So if you try to imagine the above-mentioned mechanism of stimuli and messenger substances, it is quite understandable that the whole information conduction is disturbed when there are suddenly too few neurotransmitters. An impulse then triggers only a very weak subsequent impulse. With different illnesses, among other things evenly also the Parkinson illness, there is a decrease of an important messenger material (with the Parkinson this is called Dopamin) also a too much at transmitter materials can lead to problems.
To stay with the above-mentioned example, too many keys for a few locks can trigger a “continuous fire” of impulses that upsets the information chain. (Such a mechanism is today held responsible for the development of schizophrenia). So what happens in Parkinson’s disease?
In Parkinson’s disease there is an imbalance of neurotransmitters in a certain area of the brain (basal ganglia). This area of the brain is particularly responsible for making conscious movements.For a person to be able to perform movements without problems, it is necessary that the messenger substances “acetylcholine“, “glutamate”, and “dopamine” are in a certain ratio to each other in this area. In Parkinson’s disease, there is a lack of dopamine, resulting in a “relative” excess of acetylcholine and glutamate.
In this context, “relative” means that although there is actually no longer any of the transmitter, it is used longer and more frequently due to the deficiency of the other substance. Especially the acetylcholine, which is very important for the muscular movements, now causes the symptoms “muscle tension” (rigor) and “trembling” (tremor) through this “transmitter imbalance”. The dopamine deficiency is held responsible for a typical “lack of movement”.
Where does the dopamine deficiency come from? Dopamine is produced in a specific area of the so-called midbrain, the “substantia nigra”, a region that is black in studies of the brain. In Parkinson’s disease, this region of the brain is slowly and progressively destroyed, so that gradually less and less dopamine can be produced. Today, medicine cannot (yet) name the reason for the destruction of the “substantia nigra”. Only when more than 2/3 of the dopamine produced is missing does the development of Parkinson’s symptoms occur.
