Neuro Note #1: Parkinson's Disease

I chose Parkinson's disease as my first note because it is a topic that I don't know much about. I have seen patients with this disease from shadowing experience and working in a therapy clinic. I know what it is but not to the full extent. I know that it is a disease that causes degeneration of the nervous system. The nerve cells in the brain start dying. I did some research and found out that many of the neurons that die are the neurotransmitter dopamine. When the levels of dopamine in your body start to die or decrease, it causes the brain to have abnormal activity. I also know that sometimes it can be a slow progression and other times it can be rapid. 

I decided to watch a TED Talk on Parkinson's disease. They have quite a few talks about this which makes me believe people need to better educated on this disease. The talk was "Simple hacks for Life with Parkinson's" given by Mileha Soneji. She started the talk out by telling a personal story. She used to have this uncle that she was so excited to see every time they had family gatherings. She stated that she was so excited because he was the "fun" uncle of the family. He was always the center of attention, would always play with the kids, and would jump around with them. She then goes to say that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He started out showing signs of developing tremors in his body. I know this is one of the most common ways to tell that individuals have Parkinson's. This is also why I mostly chose this topic to talk about and why I chose this TED talk specifically. I have an uncle who had a stroke about 8 years ago. He was left disabled as a result of the stroke. One major factor that hindered him from getting better was that he developed bad tremors a week after the stroke. I always knew tremors were signs of Parkinson's disease. When I saw that there was a TED Talk titled simple hacks for life with Parkinson's I knew I wanted to watch to see if there were any hacks that would be useful to help my uncle with his tremors.

Mileha talked about how her uncle started to hate to go out in public because he was embarrassed by the tremors and refused to even order coffee or tea when he went out because he would spill it. She wanted to help him to adapt to the environment so she developed this cup that would prevent spills. She made it to where the top of the cup was rounded so when he would shake, the liquid inside the cup would not spill out. I think that was a great invention to use for people who have tremors. My uncle has the hardest time taking a drink by himself because he shakes and spills it on him. 

She also noticed that her uncle had a hard time walking on flat surfaces. She stated that it would take him forever to get anywhere and even longer when he had to turn. He would only turn one foot at a time at a slow steady pace. He ended up having to use a walker everywhere he went. She was curious to how he went up and down stairs without his walker. She showed a video of him walking the stairs and it looked as normal as could be. She then did some research and found that others with Parkinson's do fine on stairs as well. It is because stairs are a continuous motion for them. She found a way to make walking on a flat surface look like a continuous motion for her uncle. She made a paper staircase illusion and taped it on the floor and he did so much better. It was amazing to see how if you trick your brain it does something completely different. 

I found this talk very inspirational. Mileha stated that we all need empathy and that to me is core characteristic that an occupational therapist must posses. She stated that there are about 60,000 new people diagnosed every year. There is no cure for Parkinson's disease, but there are things that we can do to make their day to day life easier and simpler. As future occupational therapist, I feel like we need to be innovative with treatment plans and make sure they fit the needs of each client. We need to make sure we know why they are having the side effects that they do. It takes time to figure things out but it will be worth the failures in the end. This talk gave me a new perspective of the life of an individual with Parkinson's. They do not have it easy at all. It is a hard thing to go from being completely healthy to very sick just because your nervous system is failing you. I will take the lessons I have learned from this video and apply them when I come in contact with people who have Parkinson's and show them empathy and understanding. 

Mayo Clinic. (2018, June 30). Parkinson's Disease. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/parkinsons-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20376055

Soneji, M. (February 2015). Simple hacks for life with parkinson's [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/mileha_soneji_simple_hacks_for_life_with_parkinson_s