Answer:
The Parkinson´s prevalence is 60,000 diagnosed cases per year, with an estimate of 1-1.5 million Americans ill, and the incidence is 18,000 deaths (2003), affecting mostly after the age of 55, but sometimes 30 and 40.
Explanation:
The common symptoms include involuntary tremor in hands, arms, legs and jaw
, muscle stiffness arms, shoulders or neck
, gradual loss of movement which often leads to decreased mental skills, changes in voice and facial expression as blinking, swallowing and drooling
, stooped posture, unsteady balance and dementia.
Unfortunately the regular diagnosis methods such as X-ray or blood test, are not suitable to confirm this disease, only conventional methods such as two of the three symptoms found in the patient, no more neurological signs found, exclude the tranquilizer medications, head trauma or stroke patients´usage and try levodopa, dopamine agonists, COMT inhibitors, selegiline, anticholinergic medications or amantadine, which are Parkinson's medication, only to relieve the symptoms, by stimulating the remaining cells in the substantia nigra to increase the levels of dopamine or by decreasing the acetylcholine produced.
Procedures such as surgery, pallidotomy, thalamotomy, and deep brain stimulation are also available procedures to help Parkinson´s extreme symptoms.
On going experimental research on embryonic stem cells, although political and ethical controversial, might enable scientists to produce dopamine neurons in the laboratory for transplantation into humans offering hope for Parkinson's cure in the future.
