March 6, 2024
Welcome to The Climb, your weekly journey with Lifecycle Sherpa, where we explore Parkinson’s Disease, its symptoms, treatments, tips, techniques, and build a supportive and knowledgeable community.
This week’s trail leads us to…an introduction!
Topic: What even is Parkinson’s Disease?
Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive (meaning it gets worse) neurological (meaning it affects the brain and/or spinal cord) disease, which affects movement of the body. You may also hear the term, “neurodegenerative”. This means the same thing; the brain degenerates, or get worse, over time.
How?: The nerve cells (called neurons) in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra become damaged. The neurons in this part of the brain make a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine plays a key role in allowing our body to make smooth and balanced movements by transmitting information
The bottom line: Decreased dopamine causes decline in smooth movements, balance, coordination, proprioception (body’s awareness of where it is in space), and increased tremors, stiffness and slowness.
Thank you for joining us on the trail. We plan on sending weekly newsletters out on Wednesday mornings. Please feel free to forward this to your friends, family and medical team.
We always encourage feedback, as it helps us enhance our community. Feel free to reach out regarding future topics you want to learn about, or how we can improve your experience.
See you next week!
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