[eli5] how does Parkinson’s work? does it happen when you flex certain body muscles?
In: Biology
Actually, PD doesn’t start with the muscles you’re flexing, but the muscles that aren’t actively moving. A structure in your brain called the Pars Compacta of the Substantia Nigra stops sending dopamine to something called the Striatum. That structure in response stops correctly regulating the neural pathway that keeps idle muscles from twitching. People with PD typically first notice a tremor in one of their arms that seems to go away when they use it to pick up a pencil and write or grab a glass of water. However, when they have the glass in their hand the tremors come back until they move to put the glass back down or take a sip. In later stages, you could have a patient who can barely walk 3 steps and has full-body tremors, but can ride a bike as easily as anyone else. This was the case for Michael J. Fox (from Back to the Future) who developed early onset PD. He was a mess until he went onto the ice rink. He could skate perfectly fine. However, at his current stage, that’s no longer possible.
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