Parkinson’s Day – April 11

April 11 is world Parkinson’s Day. To help raise awareness, please join the YMCA in wearing red that day. According to Parkinson.org: “Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects predominately the dopamine-producing (“dopaminergic”) neurons in a specific area of the brain called substantia nigra.

Symptoms

Symptoms generally develop slowly over years. The progression of symptoms is often a bit different from one person to another due to the diversity of the disease. People with PD may experience:

• Tremor, mainly at rest and described as pill rolling tremor in hands; other forms of tremor are possible
• Slowness and paucity of movement (called bradykinesia and hypokinesia)
• Limb stiffness (rigidity)
• Gait and balance problems (postural instability)

In addition to movement-related (“motor”) symptoms, Parkinson’s symptoms may be unrelated to movement (“non-motor”). People with PD are often more impacted by their non-motor symptoms than motor symptoms. Examples of non-motor symptoms include: depression, anxiety, apathy, hallucinations, constipation, orthostatic hypotension, sleep disorders, loss of sense of smell, and a variety of cognitive impairments.”

For more information you can visit Parkinson.org. For more information on the class for people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), please contact Dawn Lapierre at 413-596-2749 x3107