Final Project Essay (Parkinson’s disease)

For this project, I would like to introduce my grandfather, who works as a psychology
professor at university and has Parkinson’s disease. I come up with the idea to write
about my grandfather’s lifestyle before and after having a disorder and how this impacts
people and the environment encircled around him. To obtain a detailed picture of the
scene, I interviewed both my parents and my grandfather, learned rudimentary
knowledge of Parkinson’s disease from this class, and made a search for articles to
comprehend more profoundly the neurobiology behind the disease.
First of all, Parkinson’s disease is a disorder that influences movement control.
Movements can be controlled and executed through basal ganglia, which includes
striatum and pallidum portions, via direct and indirect pathway – parts of the cortico-
basal ganglia-thalamus-cortical loop (CBGTC loop) that associated with numerous
movement disorder, such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. In much more
detail, pallidum and striatum are in inhibited condition at rest; therefore, an impulse from
the cerebral cortex to the striatum, which directly transmits to the pallidum, deactivates
the function of the pallidum that leads to voluntary movement. This pathway is called the
direct pathway. It is crystal clear from the description above that various sorts of nerve
cells involve in this process, and one of the most significant neuron groups is located in
the substantia nigra in the ventral midbrain. Nigral neurons produce and transmit
numerous kinds of the neurotransmitter, particularly dopamine (DA), which has a vital
function for voluntary movements. As the amount of DA that available for
neurotransmission in the striatum is adequate, it is capable of facilitating the direct
pathway. Unfortunately, in Parkinson’s disease, neurons in the substantia nigra initiate to
degenerate which triggers the decrease in the production of DA, and accordingly, this
leads to a biochemical imbalance, which causes several critical clinical symptoms. For
instance, patients with Parkinson’s disease cannot move conveniently, talk fluently, or
maintain their posture. My grandfather’s experience is a compelling example of this.
Right off the bat, my grandfather’s lifestyle before was diagnosed with Parkinson’s
disease was healthy as a normal person could have. However, the death of my
grandmother, who had Alzheimer's disease, was deeply affected my grandfather five
years ago, which maybe is the trigger of the disease. Unfortunately, we and scientists
around the world still do not know why nigral neurons begin to degenerate but we have
myriads of theories that should be explored: it can be a genetic disorder or the
environment surrounding us is the substantial trigger of the disease. After a while,
according to my observations and my parents, my grandfather started to show numerous
mild symptoms, such as his speech became slower and incomprehensible, his movement
also modified and could move more slowly and leisurely, and particularly his hands begin
to tremor. As DA decrease in the striatum, the symptoms become much more severe.
These symptoms impacted my grandfather's social life both at work or around us.
Because of his speech, quoting my grandfather, he had a lot of hardships at work while
giving lectures or talking with his colleagues. Moreover, he also fond of walking at the
park after work or in his leisure time; nevertheless, Parkinson’s disease created many
obstacles during his walks and always he needed a companion to look after him. Later,
consulting with a doctor about the condition my grandfather has and prescribing special
medicament for Parkinson’s disease becomes much more efficient. The medicine the
doctor prescribed contains DA, which takes place for the DA that should be produced by
the degenerated nigral neurons. After taking medicaments, my grandfather partially
recovered when we compared his situation before. At least, his speech became a little bit
clear, and he seems a lot radiant. Albeit his treatments have been proceeding so far, he
still has many difficulties that it makes not feasible for us to leave him alone any
moment. My parents and aunts always attempt to be around him, assist him, and keep
him alive.
In conclusion, Parkinson’s disease is one of the important and urgent cases that should be
researched throughout the world. Right now, there are numerous organizations,
conferences, studies that assist people with Parkinson’s disease or their loved ones how to
overcome their hardship. I hope that one day our efforts to find out the perfect treatment
will be paid and we will be able to save the people who suffer from this kind of disease.

References:
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6271/
 https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/exploring-the-link-between-dopamine-and-
parkinsons-disease.html
 Wikipedia
 Our class on Coursera