What is Parkinson’s disease and what are the symptoms? Parkinson’s disease has been recorded in history for nearly two hundred years now, but twenty years ago Chinese people are still very unfamiliar with Parkinson’s disease, over the years we have heard more and more, why? Why? Because Parkinson’s disease is a disease of the elderly, and after the aging of the population, this disease is becoming more and more common. In the normal population, there is one Parkinson’s disease patient in every 1,000 people, but in people over 55 years old, there is one Parkinson’s disease patient in every 100 people, the incidence has increased tenfold. Parkinson’s disease typically manifests itself in three ways shaking, stiffness, and slowness. But Parkinson’s is a syndrome, a collection of many symptoms, not a single symptom, and shaking is only one of its very typical symptoms. So why is it called Parkinson’s disease? It comes from a London doctor named James Parkinson. Parkinson, he first described the symptoms of the disease in 1817, and later named it after him. At that time, he named the disease tremor paralysis, indicating that he found that the primary manifestation of the disease was also tremor. It was later discovered that not all Parkinson’s patients exhibit tremor; about 1/3 do not exhibit tremor and show very pronounced stiffness and slowness. I often see some elderly people with tremors in their hands when they hold things, how is this tremor different from the tremor of Parkinson’s disease? This is a question we often encounter. Patients or friends may ask: My hand shakes a little, is it considered Parkinson’s? From a professional point of view, there are many kinds of shaking, and these types have different forms of expression. For example, this kind of shaking in Parkinson’s is a resting tremor, that is, one hand or both hands will shake up when it is quiet, and it usually develops unilaterally first, and then progresses to the other side, and there can also be mouth shaking. When you pick up something, you don’t shake when you pick it up, but you start to shake when you put it back, and this is called resting tremor. This is why it is said that if the hand tremor is Parkinson’s, an experienced doctor will know if it is with one glance. For example, if an old classmate meets for dinner and his or her hands keep shaking, it is definitely Parkinson’s disease. If it shakes when you pick up the chopsticks for dinner and does not shake when you put them down, it is senile tremor. There are various manifestations of tremor, in fact, tremor is not the most serious symptom of Parkinson’s disease, it is the most obvious symptom visually, there will always be people asking: “Why are you shivering ah, why are you shaking ah, why are you shaking more than before ……”, so it brings patients psychological pressure the most. In fact, what is more serious than shaking is stiffness and sluggishness. The patient said that his body felt like he was carrying three big pieces of wood. I think this patient is really smart, he described the disease very evocatively. In the early stage of Parkinson’s disease, one side of the limb, the upper limb or lower limb, is particularly inflexible, so the muscles will be stiff and the venous return will be affected, so he will feel heavy, swollen and sore. Just like a person who never runs runs 1,000 meters, the next day his legs and stomach feel stiff and painful when he walks down the stairs. Parkinson’s patients not only have stiffness in the limbs, but also in the muscles of the whole body, including the head. Some patients say their heads feel like something is holding them together, and they feel dizzy all day long. Many Parkinson’s patients have back pain, and a significant number of Parkinson’s patients even go to orthopedic surgery because of back pain, but after the surgery is done, they still have pain and go to neurosurgery to find out that Parkinson’s disease is to blame. The effects of this stiffness are generalized, including the facial muscles. The facial expression of a Parkinson’s patient is often referred to as a mask face because he has no expression. We call Parkinson’s an insidious disease because its disease progresses slowly and does not change from day to day. For example, if a couple lives together every day, the old lady can’t see that the old man is not expressive anymore, but when outsiders take a look every once in a while, they find out how the old man is not smiling and his face is expressionless. Children run away when they see such an old man, because he is always staring straight at children. Parkinson’s disease is a visit to neurology, neurology or neurosurgery. So is the problem with this disease in the brain? Two hundred years ago the English physician James Parkinson, a very conscientious doctor, recorded six cases with tremor palsy, and at that time Dr. James Parkinson did not immediately realize that the disease was related to some part of the brain. But later, when many people gradually began to study Parkinson’s disease, this point became clear: it is a disease of the brain, that is, there is something wrong with a part of the human brain, so that these manifestations occur. Why exactly is it wrong? The brain is the smartest, most complex, and most incomprehensible organ in the universe, and the development of science and technology nowadays can only give a general understanding of it. There are still some questions about the onset of Parkinson’s that are not well understood. I think the patient can unnecessarily pursue this issue in depth, trust the experienced doctor, follow his treatment on the line.