Trapped in Their Bodies by Parkinson's
By: John Langone
New York Times, February 12, 2002
Shaking Up Parkinson Disease," by Dr. Abraham
Lieberman, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, $18.95.
The opening to this instructive book captures the
slowly progressive affliction of Parkinson's disease, which has been
called "a disease of moving" and which also affects emotions,
thinking and communicating.
"Each day, every day," the author writes,
"people with Parkinson disease awaken, trapped in their bodies. They
move slowly, their limbs are stiff, their hands shake, and their legs
won't do what they want them to. They shuffle instead of taking long
strides, and periodically `freeze,' unable to move."
Often beginning with an episodic tremor of a hand,
Parkinson's disease may be accompanied by other symptoms, like small
cramped handwriting, decreased facial expression, lowered voice volume and
feelings of anxiety.
About 1.2 million people in the United States and
Canada suffer from Parkinson's, the author estimates, with 60,000 new
cases diagnosed each year. No preventive practices or cures have been
found, and the cause remains a mystery, although questions have long been
raised about the roles, if any, of environmental chemicals, viruses,
trauma, drugs and heredity.
A neurologist and the medical director of the
National Parkinson Foundation, the author, Dr. Lieberman, sorts through
the possible causes. And, he offers patients and the people who treat them
advice on maintaining quality of life and assesses drug treatments and
surgery.
The operations can destroy altered regions of the
brain, clear away abnormal electrical "static" with electrode
implants and can sometimes repair damage with transplants of
dopamine-producing cells (the decrease of the brain chemical dopamine can
produce one or more of the classic signs of the disease).
"People with P.D. and their families must
understand it," Dr. Lieberman summarizes, "and approach it
unlike anything they've faced in their life."
FAIR USE NOTICE: This
page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging
distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to
use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
