What are the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease

  1, resting tremor: tremor is often the earliest manifestation of the disease, usually starting from the distal end of one side of the upper limb, with the thumb, index finger and middle finger as the main focus, manifesting as finger movements like rolling pills or counting bills. It then gradually extends to the ipsilateral lower extremity and the contralateral extremity, and in later stages may spread to the jaw, lips, tongue and head. In the early stage of the disease, the patient does not care much about the tremor, which often appears when the limb is in a particular position and disappears when the position is changed. Later, the tremor develops only when the limb is at rest, for example, when watching TV or talking to someone, the limb appears to tremble involuntarily, and the tremor decreases or stops when changing position or movement, so it is called resting tremor, which is the most important feature of Parkinson’s disease. The tremor intensifies when the patient is emotionally or mentally stressed, and can be reduced or disappeared during sleep. Another characteristic of tremor is its rhythmical nature, where the frequency of the vibrations is 4 to 7 times per second. This feature can also help to distinguish tremor from other disorders, such as chorea, cerebellar disorders, and hyperthyroidism.  2. Muscle rigidity: In Parkinson’s disease, the limbs and torso usually lose their flexibility and become rigid. The early stage of the lesion mostly starts from one limb. At the beginning, a limb feels inflexible, stiff and sore, and gradually worsens. If you pick up the patient’s arm or leg and help him move his joints, you will obviously feel the stiffness of his limb and have difficulty moving his joints.  3. Slow movement: This is the core symptom of Parkinson’s disease and an essential criterion for the neurologist to diagnose Parkinson’s disease. In the early stage, due to the straightening of the upper arm muscles and finger muscles, the patient’s upper limbs are often unable to do fine movements, such as untying shoelaces, buttoning and other movements become much slower than before, or cannot be completed successfully. Writing also gradually becomes difficult, and the handwriting becomes curved and smaller, which is known as “microcapitalism” in medical science. The facial muscle movements are reduced, the patient rarely blinks, the eyes turn less, and the expression is dull, as if wearing a mask, which is medically called “mask face”. When walking, it is difficult to start, once the step is started, the body leans forward, the center of gravity shifts forward, the pace becomes smaller and faster, and cannot stop in time, i.e. “panic gait”; when walking, the coordinated swing of the affected upper limb decreases or even disappears; it is difficult to turn around, and it takes several consecutive small broken steps to turn around.  4.Motor disorders of the mouth, tongue, jaw and pharynx muscles: the patient cannot swallow saliva naturally, resulting in a lot of salivation. Speech is reduced, and the voice is low and monotonous. In severe cases, it may lead to choking and coughing when eating and drinking. In the advanced stage of the disease, the patient cannot stand on his own after sitting down, cannot turn over on his own after being bedridden, and cannot take care of himself in daily life.  5, posture and gait abnormalities: the patient’s whole body muscles can be involved, muscle tone is increased, the patient appears special posture: head leaning forward, trunk slightly flexed, upper arm inward, elbow joint bending, wrist slightly extended, finger metacarpal joint bending and interphalangeal joint straightening, thumb to palm, hip and knee joint mildly bent. Panic gait: It is difficult to start, and once started, it shows a fast, small, panic gait.  6.Other symptoms: smell disorder and limb pain may occur. Sleep disorders: difficulty in falling asleep, difficulty in maintaining sleep. Phytodysfunction phenomena, such as increased secretion of saliva and sebaceous glands, increased or decreased sweat secretion, difficulty in excretion of stool and urine and upright hypotension. A small number of patients may develop depression, anxiety, hallucinations, delusions and other psychiatric symptoms. Experts say that older people with Parkinson’s disease should not be afraid, because Parkinson’s disease itself is not a fatal disease and generally does not affect life expectancy. With the continuous innovation and improvement of treatment methods and levels, more and more patients are able to maintain a high level of motor function for life while improving their quality of life. Of course, if patients do not receive timely diagnosis and reasonable treatment, they are also prone to decline in physical function and even become unable to take care of themselves and eventually develop various complications, such as pneumonia.