Parkinson’s disease is chronic and progressive. The question now here is what causes this disease.
The symptoms and not actually the disease itself are cause by a loss of nerve cells (dopaminergic cells) in the substantia nigra, a part of the brain. Dopamine as produced by the dopaminergic cells, is a neurotransmitter that helps transmit the message to the brain and that control body movements while coordinate them to the body parts. Now, the dopamine allows the substantia nigra and corpus striatum to communicate and this conversation does proper movements of the muscle.
If these cells in the brain now are damaged, the production of the dopamine goes down and the messages from the two parts of the brain do not work properly. These symptoms appear when a large portion of these nerve cells are lost. The worst thing here is, as the dopamine levels continue to drop, the signs and symptoms get worse.
April 22, 2010
What Are the Causes of Parkinson’s disease?
February 11, 2010
What is Asthma? What Causes Asthma?
Asthma is one of the widespread diseases and it affects our airways that carry air to and from our lungs. Asthmatic is what we call those people who experience long-lasting or recurrent sufferings of this disease.
An asthmatic person has swollen or inflamed inside walls which makes the airways extremely sensitive to irritations and increases the susceptibility to allergic reactions.
If the airways become closer and narrower, there is a small amount of air that can pass through them, both to and from the lungs. There are symptoms of the narrowing that include wheezing, chest tightness, breathing problems, and coughing.
January 17, 2010
Why Diabetes is called Diabetes Mellitus?
The word “diabetes” is a Greek which means a siphon. It comes from the term diabainein as named by this Greek physician Aretus the Cappadocian during the second century AD. According to him, patients who suffered from this were passing too much water (polyuria) – like a siphon. It now became “diabetes” from the Medieval Latin diabetes. But the question is why the term mellitus is added. Actually, Thomas Willis did this in 1675, although it is commonly referred to simply as diabetes. The first three letters “mel” means honey in Latin. Therefore, the urine and blood of diabetic people has excess glucose, and glucose is sweet like honey. Now, “diabetes mellitus” could literally mean as “siphoning off sweet water”. In ancient China people observed that ants would be attracted to some people’s urine, because it was sweet. The term “Sweet Urine Disease” was coined.
December 23, 2009
Abnormal Heart Rhythm Linked To Alzheimer’s
Atrial fibrillation is a form of abnormal health rhythm that can lead to dementia and even Alzheimer’s disease as new study finds.
Dementia patients who suffer from the presence of atrial fibrillation are predicted to have higher death rates especially among younger than 70 patients. They have also a higher risk of all types dementia, even when other risk factors were into account, and Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia.
More surprising was that those in the younger than 70 who had atrial fibrillation had the highest risk of developing dementia, even though dementia is normally associated with aging. People in this group were also at a 38 percent higher risk of dying.
February 14, 2009
Measuring Calcium in Arteries Could Improve Heart Disease Prediction
Dr Tamar S. Polonsky, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and colleagues found that a score based on the calcium amount present in coronary arteries with the traditional factors are taken into account when assessing heart disease risk. It improved the prediction of risk and put more individuals in the most extreme risk category.
When fat and other substances built up under the inner layer of the artery wall, it might be the result for arterial calcified plaque. It is a syndrome of atherosclerosis, a disease of the vessel wall, which is medically termed as coronary artery disease (CAD).
CAD patients have a high risk for heart attacks. It is best explained as the plaque builds up, the arteries get narrower and narrower and can even stop blood flowing to the heart. The result is chest pain or angina, or a heart attack.
January 12, 2009
What is Hemophilia? What is Haemophilia?
Hemophilia is a group of inherited blood disorders in which the blood does not clot properly. It is the standard spelling but also known as haemophilia in the United Kingdom. Hemophilie, hemofilie, hemofili are other spellings but we have to use the standard spelling in this article.
Defects in the blood vessels, the coagulation mechanism or the blood platelets can cause disorders in bleeding. It is best explained that an affected person will bleed for a longer time or spontaneously than a healthy person after injury or any surgery.
The coagulation mechanism of the blood transforms the blood from a liquid into a hard solid then involves into several clotting. It generates fibrin when it is activated and together with the plug, it stops the bleeding. When these factors are deficient or actually missing, the blood does not clot properly, so the bleeding continues.
October 2, 2008
Study Shows Why Cholesterol Damages Arteries
Atherosclerotic plaques always contain large amounts of immune cells in addition to crystallized cholesterol but, amazingly, no bacteria or viruses. It was previously not clear just how the body’s own defense forces are called into action. Animals are also kept in an absolutely sterile environment and can suffer from “clogging” or “furring” of the arteries when their food always contains high levels of cholesterol. The same thing is found in humans. When the blood cholesterol level is higher, there is a greater risk of atherosclerosis and the greater suffering to a heart attack. “We have known this for a long time”, pointed out by Professor Dr. Eicke Latz from Bonn University, “but nobody understood exactly why”.