April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease. The cause is unknown, and although there is presently no cure, treatment options are available, such as medication and surgery to manage PD symptoms.

Parkinson’s involves the malfunction and death of vital nerve cells in the brain, called substantia nigra. Some of these dying neurons produce dopamine, a chemical that sends messages to the part of the brain that controls movement and coordination.

As PD progresses, the amount of dopamine produced in the brain decreases, leaving a person unable to control movement normally. The specific group of symptoms that an individual may experience varies from person to person. Primary motor signs of Parkinson’s disease include tremor of the hands, arms, legs, jaw and face, bradykinesia, or slowness of movement, rigidity or stiffness of the limbs and trunk, and postural instability or impaired balance and coordination.

Some of the nonmotor symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, cognitive changes, sleep disorders, mood disorders, constipation, depression, visual disturbances and loss of smell.

Incidence of Parkinson’s increases with age; the average age of disease onset is 58. Men are one-and-a-half times more likely to have Parkinson’s than women. As many as one million Americans live with PD, and 30,000 people in Michigan currently have PD. It is estimated that within 13 years, 70,000 will have Parkinson’s.

Many research articles document improvement in balance, confidence, quality of life and reduced fall rates for persons with Parkinson’s disease when they are participating in an exercise program. Exercise needs to be a lifelong habit, and the benefits fade if exercise stops.