So, WTF is Parkinsons??

I am in no way a doctor, and this is just a way for me to better understand this disease.

When I was first diagnosed with PD, I really didn’t understand what it was or why it happened. I thought it was just the “Old person shaky disease.” Now I understand that it is my brain not making enough Dopamine.

Google AI says:

               Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger in the brain, that plays a key role in the brain's reward system, motivation, and pleasure. It is associated with feelings of enjoyment, satisfaction, and the desire to repeat behaviors that lead to those feelings. Dopamine also influences movement, learning and emotional responses. 

Think of the old TV seats we used to have, the ones that were hooked up to the big antenna on the roof that received signals and sent them down to your TV set. Now, if you started to get a weak signal, the TV would top showing a nice clear picture. You would get static and a blurry picture. No amount of whacking or cussing at the poor TV set would fix the picture because there was nothing wrong with the TV, it just wasn’t getting the right signal to work properly. Imagen that every few months or years, someone climbed up on your roof and broke off a piece of the antenna. Slowly, the picture quality would fade and become full static or blurry. Still, there is nothing wrong with the TV (the body), it just isn’t getting the proper information from the antenna (the Central Nervous System and the brain).

So, when the brain stops making Dopamine, your body no longer is getting the correct signals from your brain, hence, that shakiness and the rigidity (in a nut shell explanation) It’s a lot more complex than that but you get the point. It also messes with your mood, focus, concentration and drive because without Dopamine.......well......its definitely noticeable.

That is an easy way of understanding the issue. The body still wants to go, It just can’t. So, like a machine that no longer is getting the proper signals, it tends to just kinds sit there, shaking or locked up not wanting to do anything.

This Tulip is the symbol for Parkinsons.