Parkinson’s Disease History

Parkinson’s disease is one of the conditions that have been around since ancient times. Named after the founder of this disease, the first trace of this disease was found in the Indian researches where it was commonly referred to as Kampavata in the medical system of Ayurveda. The Western medical literature describes this disease as “Shaking Palsy” and the first traces of this disease in their literature have been found in A.D. 175.

The modern and the most recent publication on Parkinson’s disease were done in the year 1860. It was given the name of “An Essay on Shaking Palsy” and with the publishing of this, this disease become a medical condition recognized all across the globe. The publishing consisted of six different cases that had been under the observation of the doctor during practice regime and in the interactions with his neighbors.

The sole purpose of this essay was to encourage people from the same field to study and read about this disease. 60 years after the first publication, Jean Martin Charcot who was a French Neurologist started researching on it. Jean served to be the first person from this field who recognized importance of work by Parkinson. Until this time, the disease was known as Shaking Palsy, however in this publication Jean referred to the disease with the name of Parkinson’s disease. A lot of information has been added to the disease however there is still a lot which stays a mystery.

Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease have been progressive and degenerative which have more common availability in individuals of higher age. The first time chemical differences between patients of Parkinson were identified was in the year 1960s.

Since the year 1960, research on this disease has been quite rapid, however, no effective cure has been found yet. A Parkinson’s disease foundation was established in the year 1957 in America. There also have been other foundations who have contributed to research done collectively on this disease.

Parkinson’s disease is a condition of nervous system which can cause complete immobility for a period of 10 to 25 years. There are only a few cases where the cause behind the problem has been detected, other than this; there have been no causes behind the problem that could have been easily identified. In some cases, there wasn’t a single factor that could contribute to this problem.

Most of the times, the people suffering from Parkinson’s disease are between the ages of 50 and 70. There hasn’t been a clear trend of suffering of disease between men or women. The problem can eventually result in immobility. Some people might even die as the result of the Parkinson’s disease. The most common of the symptoms of this disease is a tremor. This is felt in the lower portions of the arm however you might suffer from this problem in the legs and other portions of body.

The body parts where tremors appear depend on the person who is suffering. Most of the times the tremors are experienced with any kind of activity which involves muscle strain. The tremor decreases with the passage of time and you would never experience tremors while you are sleeping.

Treatment of this disease can be done with the help of surgery in patients who are suffering from the advanced stage of this disease and people who are unable to tolerate the effects of this disease.

The surgery involves attempt of removing specific areas of brain which are suffering from the symptoms of this disease. However, instead of the old styled surgery, new techniques have been adopted which involve implantation of electric simulators to brain.