Parkinson's Disease

people differently. It can strike a person early in their 20s and 30s or, later in life, it can be dominated by different clinical problems at different times. In some it progresses very rapidly while in others it progresses very, very slowly. Surprisingly, regardless of these differences, the brain changes that occur in Parkinson’s disease are similar. We now know that before symptoms emerge, two changes in the brain are already underway. There is an abnormal accumulation of a normal protein important for nerve cell function, a protein called alpha-synuclein, and a small group of brain cells begins to die cells that produce dopamine. The symptoms of Parkinson’s disease emerge when less than half of these particular dopamine cells are still alive, at a time when alpha-synuclein is found in a small number of cells in many regions of the brain.