World Parkinson's Day improve early detection

This Sunday is World Parkinson's Day 2010. This should be pointed to the situation of Parkinson's sufferers. The diagnosis and treatment of this disease are still in their infancy.

Worldwide, around four million are said to be affected by Parkinson's disease. In Germany, there are about 250,000 people, in which nerve cells die in the midbrain, which use dopamine as a messenger substance and no longer properly activate structures in the cerebrum due to the disease. The result is symptoms such as posture instability, tremor, stiff muscles and slow motion (bradykinesis). Even depressive moods, smelling and sleeping disorders can be clues. When the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease appear, more than half of the dopamine-producing cells in the so-called substantia nigra in the midbrain have usually died. That's why early detection is essential.

If a Parkinson's disease is diagnosed, the drug therapy usually consists in the administration of dopamine in the form of L-Dopa. The dose must always be adjusted as the disease progresses. Meanwhile, there are also methods of deep brain stasis by inserted electrodes. Naturopathic therapies can be given concomitantly, but should only be carried out in consultation with the treating physicians.

11 April is the birthday of the English physician, pharmacist and paleontologist James Parkinson (1755-1824). He was the first to mention it in "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" in 1817. Parkinson's disease called shaking palsy or "paralysis agitans" because of the muscle shaking of those affected Researchers at the University of Tübingen are currently carrying out a somewhat larger study in cooperation to collect further information on early detection and to develop possible therapeutic approaches. (Thorsten Fischer, Naturopath Osteopathy, 10.04.2010)