Parkinson’s Disease Is Serious Business
Degenerative disease is tragic, but not the end of the line
Besides the fact that Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's, most people know very little about this devastating disease. It slowly robs sufferers of their motor skills and speech over the course of years or decades.
Typical signs of Parkinson's include tremors, muscle stiffness, slowness, and loss of balance. Speech can be difficult to understand. Fatigue is common. Mood swings and disordered thinking also often come with the territory.
Though it may be hard to believe in this day and age, there are no tests that can definitively diagnose Parkinson's disease. Its symptoms are sometimes confused with the normal aging process, leaving some undiagnosed. There's a genetic component to the disease, but other theories include head trauma or environmental toxins.
Unfortunately, there's no cure for Parkinson's, but symptoms can be treated. Drug therapy is common, sometimes supplemented by surgery, exercise and/or speech therapy. Parkinson's is a progressive disease, but it is its complications that eventually prove fatal to its sufferers.
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May 28th, 2009 at 10:43 am
my husband is 74 and i believe he might have pd. we live in phoenix az. where would you recommend that he could be checked. he has been diagnoised with neuropathy but i always thought something else was going because of other combined medical issues.