Six of Many Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson's disease is an extremely difficult disease to diagnose. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2002, but looking back I have had it since about 1990 or earlier. I will go over six of the many symptoms of Parkinson's.
LOSS OF SMELL
The first one was the loss of smell and the doctors tested me for a brain tumor and when none was found they said everything was OK. They could not tell me what had caused the loss of smell.
DIFFICULTY WRITING
The second one was I started to have difficulty with my signature and my writing became smaller which I was noted for very poor hand writing all my life so I thought was probably age related.
CHANGE IN VOICE
The third one which was very subtle was that my voice became softer and softer. People started to ask me to repeat what I had said, but it didn't register that much as my voice was naturally soft.
PROBLEMS WITH BALANCE
The fourth one was I started to have problems with balance when going down stairs with no railing and As I have always disliked heights it didn't dawn on me something was wrong when I found that they started to bother me.
SUDDEN PANIC
The next one occurred when I went swimming in that I started to panic about not being able to reach my destination even though I could still swim.
SHUFFLING FEET..
The next thing that was noticed by people that knew me said I was starting to shuffle my feet when I walked.
All of these symptoms were very slow in developing and it’s only when you look back that you realized what they were. When I was diagnosed with the disease it was a process of elimination of other possible illnesses. It was found when I was questioned by a clinic of neurological doctors. This was what I was surprised about in that I was given dopamine in the form of leveocarb to take three times a day and they told me if there was an improvement in my symptoms then I had Parkinson's disease and if there was no change then I didn’t have it. Evidently there is no test that they can do to tell if one has this disease or not.
Presently I am on the health center Parkinson's disease research program and I have learned very much in the last 3 to 4 years. FortunFORWtely I have been able to stabilize the disease with the proper medication.
I will discuss in a later article the results of the research program that I have been on.
SIX ADDITIONAL SYMPTOMS OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE
In an earlier article I spoke of six symptoms of Parkinson's Disease that I encountered as I was being diagnosed with this disease. I will now go over additional subtle symptoms.
SLOW MOTION
As Parkinson’s progresses your movements are in slow motion, and can slow you down additionally by 50% in the middle of something you are doing. For example you are walking you all of sudden slow down and it’s hard to keep a steady pace.
DROWINESS
Again as the disease progresses you have a tendency to appear to be sleeping, but your head is nodded and you can still hear what is going on. Your attention is not nearly as good. I have been asked many times are you sleeping and I really surprise people by telling them what they were talking about or I will answer a question that they have asked.
ARMS DO NOT SWING WHEN YOU WALK
I did not know this until my doctor told me they were not moving. Even when I am conscious of this fact I can manually swing them but they soon stop unless I think about them all the time. Its like an involuntary action.
TENDENCY TO FALL
I fell a couple of times and when the doctor told me that this was one of the problems with this disease I started to be very careful and I stopped falling.
CRAMPTED MUSCLES
I found that in the last couple of years that my leg muscles and my fingers were starting to cramp up. I found that if I am holding something in my fingers for a long time that my index finger and thumb will cramp.
AUTOMATIC STRETCHING
When I wake up in the morning my body will suddenly go very rigid and all my muscles will stretched. This will just suddenly occur and last about 10 seconds.
These are more subtle symptoms that I have experienced. I will elaborate further on all these symptoms in future articles. I must point out here that these are my symptoms and that everybody does not have the same ones but it is fairly general. For example I do not shake which is the symptom that most people associate with Parkinson's Disease.
PARKINSON'S DISEASE RESEARCH RESULTS
Sometimes the simplest products give you good results in coping with diseases.
THE RESEARCH PROGRAM
In an earlier article I spoke of being in a research program on Parkinson's disease. This research was to find what effect caffeine would have on the drowsiness caused by Parkinson’s disease
ACTIVITY
The program was setup in that the first two weeks I would take pills which would be a placebo or caffeine.
The third week, nothing was taken to let the body come back to its normal condition.
The fourth and fifth week would be the the different pill than I took the first two weeks. For example if I had the real thing the first week, then I had the placebo this time or visa versa.
RESULTS
The results were dramatic. During the first weeks I noticed a huge improvement in that I stayed awake in the afternoon and was much more alert. In discussions with the doctor he said he felt I was on the caffeine pills at the beginning. For the last three weeks my condition deteriorated back to its original status.
CONCLUSIONS
At the end of the trial the doctor put me back on caffeine pills (Wake Up pills) and my condition improved. Along the way I got an unexpected improvement. I found that my balance and my walking had really improved. I could now walk up to a mile where as before I would never have been able to do this, and it is easier going on stairs or being on uneven ground. Other participants found the same thing.
I have found that the quality of my life has vastly improved. When the results of the trial were released it confirmed that I was on the caffeine in the beginning of the trial.
This is just an article of what happened to me during this trial and should not be considered a cure. As you know the reaction can be different from one person to another. Of course you must speak with your doctor before starting to do this.
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