PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE

Parkinson's disease And Huntington's disease

Parkinson's disease And Huntington's disease

Compare and contrast parkinson's disease and huntington's disease, referring to symptoms, diagnosis, causes and brain regions.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that over a million people in the United States have been diagnosed with. This disease is a result of degeneration of nerve cells in a region of the brain that controls movement. Parkinson's disease degenerates dopamine which is a neurotransmitter causing impaired movement. fifty thousand people each year are diagnosed each year and the numbers are expected to rise. The symptoms of Parkinson's disease are numerous. The first which is usily the "tip off" is shaking of a limb especially if the body is at rest. (Kalat 2007 45)

Other systems are sleep disturbances, slow movement, not being able to move, personality changes, rigid limbs, speech impairments, sexual difficulties, dementia, and depression. The severity of Parkinson's tends to worsen over time. There is no definite answer what causes Parkinson's but there are many theories. Many believe that it is a genetically inherited disease that is passed on from generation to generation. (Lindvall 2000 155)

There are also connections with the illegal drug MPTP, and many of the people who get Parkinson's are people that got a server cause of influenza during an epidemic in the early 1900s. This disease might also because by chemicals or other types of pollution that were unaware of or that were unaware that were in feting are selves. Parkinson's disease has no confirmed date of when it was first found but researchers have documents of what they think is Parkinson's disease as far back as 3,000 BC. There is no cure for Parkinson's disease. Doctors usily proscribe levodopa which increases dopamine levels in the brain. (Oertel 2005 10) In server cases some patients get brain surgery and implants have been done or used. A surgery which takes dopamine-producing tissue is transplanted into the brain is now being tested. If the surgery works it will prevent the dopamine-producing brain cells from dying. Parkinson's disease is found all over the world and all different races. Parkinson's is the 4th leading cause of death for older adults and rising. (Pinel 2006 78)

Whereas Huntington's disease, or Huntngton's chorea, is a genetic disease that causes selective neural cell death, which results in chorea, or irregular, jerking movements of the limbs caused by involuntary muscle contractions, and dementia. It can cause a lack of concentration and depression. It also may cause atrophy of the caudate nucleus, a part of the brain. However, symptoms vary between individuals, with some sufferers showing symptoms that others do not. Those suffering from Huntington's disease normally begin displaying symptoms between the ages of 30 and 50, but has been known to show itself in people as young as two and as old as 80. (Rosenzweig 2007 12)

Huntington's disease is inehrited from one of the victim's parents. Since the gene for HD is dominant, there is a 50% chance of a sufferer's offspring ...