Parkinson's Disease

When Young People Get Parkinson's Disease

With celebrities like Michael J. Fox putting early-onset Parkinson's disease in the spotlight, more and more information is available to those with the disease. Although Parkinson's is similar in both older and younger patients, treating early-onset Parkinson's disease often includes additional concerns since many of these patients want to remain active, work and prevent the disease from taking over their busy lives.

How can you remain independent when the disease is causing your body to lose control? Dr. Alida Griffith, medical director of the Booth Gardner Parkinson's Care Center, outlines what you need to know about early-stage Parkinson's.

What is Parkinson's disease?
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, meaning that the neurons in your brain degenerate over time, specifically your dopamine-secreting cells. Consequently, people experience problems with movement, including rigidity, muscle stiffness and muscle slowness. They also develop a tremor that starts asymmetrically, more on one side of the body than the other, usually involving the fingers first. Later symptoms include poor balance.

At what age does Parkinson's disease normally appear?
The median age of onset is about age 65. Parkinson's disease in someone under the age of 60 is considered to be early-onset Parkinson's disease. But it's much rarer in younger people. In individuals under 50 years, it's about 50 per 100,000, and for people under 40 years, it's fewer than 5 per 100,000.

What causes early-onset Parkinson's disease?
Nobody knows entirely. In Parkinson's disease, in general, there is probably a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In early-onset Parkinson's disease, it's thought that the genetic factors are more common. Often there is a family history of the disease, and about 50 percent of patients have a mutation in the gene called parkin.

What symptoms are typical of early-onset Parkinson's disease?
Typically, the early symptoms are really nonspecific and vague. People complain of fatigue, malaise, muscle pain, weakness and depression. Dystonia, which includes cramping of the toes and a flexed-down position with pain in the soles, is more common in younger people with the disease, but it can come on in older people as well. Unfortunately people can have foot dystonia when they walk and, in early-onset Parkinson's disease, the foot can also turn inward, called foot inversion.

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