Motor Symptoms Of Parkinson's Disease
Motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease mainly have to do with physical malfunction and difficulty faced by the patient. These may include different parts of the body, mainly to do with muscles, hands, backbone, joints and the jaws. The difficulties faced are mainly owing to a variety of disturbances in the nervous system in different areas which are responsible for the physical maneuvers that are affected. The affected areas being multiple regular activities become all the more difficult for the patient, given that he is already in a state of mental impairment. The physical conditions that are observed in a Parkinson's disease case need extreme care at a level of commendable professional competency.
An overview of the motor symptoms -
The most commonly observed and initially found symptom may be that of tremors. Hands and the neck tremble if tremors have been observed. You may have seen older people in a similar state, and you may have observed them to be lacking a sense of the adulthood at times. This is a basic symptom which is one of the most visible and prominent. At times it is easy to tell that Parkinson's has struck the patient only by observing such symptoms. Some of motor problems also include fatigue, a mask like face, unreadable handwriting and a few other problems.
Torso and back problems - One of the main difficulties arising from rigidity and postural instability is that the torso seems to stiffen up and lose the ability to straighten up. At times this might spare the patient, but since the joints and muscles tend to stiffen up at most places in the body, similar feelings can be felt in different parts of the body like knees, hips and the neck. Stooping is a common sign of Parkinson's and physical stiffness is the main cause.
Walking - The manner of walking of a Parkinson's patient is seen to be particularly changed. Short steps and a shuffling tendency is the most commonly observed feature in ones manner of walking, and the agility is deeply subdued. Taking a turn while walking can take much longer than for a person with normal health. In cases of severe Parkinson's syndrome, termed as akinesia, the movements can get frozen for a few seconds, before the patient can gradually resume movement. The leg muscles are also often affected causing twitching and sprains in the calf and ankle areas.
Jaws and speech problems - Since muscles suffer from the lack of signaling from the brain, a certain slack tends to develop making the jaws unable to move in order to perform acts like swallowing, chewing and talking. The movements down the digestive track may often cause pain due to a lack of coordination and synch. Speech problems make it even more difficult for the patients to recognize the need for a communicative approach.
The earliest symptoms are part of the motor symptoms and the good part is that they are visible and can be told from.